Putus Magus Formerly called Putus Veneficus
by Widgetmarsh
Summary: Buffy/Narnia X-over - Seventeen year old Buffy Summers is given a special mission. Want to know more... then read it. Contains Susan/Caspian & Buffy/Peter pairings.
1. The Task Explained

**Title**: Pure Magic

** Author**: Kelly Rowe

** Rating**: M

** Disclaimer**: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and her cast) & The Chronicles of Narnia Characters are the properties of their creators, writers and all who have worked on them. I am simply playing with them for my own amusement and make no profit from them – trust me on this.

** Summary**: Seventeen year old Buffy Summers is given a special mission. Want to know more... then read it.

** Spoilers**: Buffy the Vampire Slayer seasons 1 & 2. The Chronicles of Narnia Series – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe & Prince Caspian (movieverse).

** Distribution**: My site (eventually). Wherever else I put it. Anyone else want it, just ask and you shall receive.

** Pairing/s**: Susan Pevensie/Prince Caspian, Buffy Summers/Angel (mentioned), Buffy Summers/Peter Pevensie

** Category**: Alternate Universe

**A.N:** The first part of the story is more a literal rewrite of the movie (except for a few bits here and there). It is only after a certain point in which the real storyline emerges.

* * *

** Prologue: The Task Explained**

_ /A tragedy with  
More damage than a soul should see/_

** Sunnydale, California (USA) – 1998**

To come across it, you would of course assume that it was nothing but a picturesque, enchanting small town set by the ocean, a couple of hours beyond the boundaries of Los Angeles's hustle and bustle. However what it in actuality it was was a Hellmouth – El Boca de Inferno, as the initial inhabitants had appropriately named it – and all sorts of malevolence congregated there with an assortment of nefarious plots to take over the world.

It was also the residence of the slayer – or more precisely, slayers. For at present instead of there being one girl in the entire world with the strength and skill to stop the vampires (and other nasties) there were now two. They were very dissimilar girls; Kendra was a by the book slayer, more or less a robot in her activities and demonstrative responses to others – a girl who would never do anything against her Watcher's wishes. And then there was Buffy – the senior slayer of the two – a under no circumstances read the handbook, exaggeratedly emotional and breaks every single rule that a teenager and slayer should live by.

For the past few months the chosen two had patrolled the streets and burial grounds of the inactive Sunnydale in each other's company, but Kendra had stipulated independent patrol routes earlier in the day after being exposed to Buffy's inconsistent appalling irritability for hours on end. This was why many hours later Willow Rosenberg – Buffy's best friend – was able to find her all alone sitting on a grave marker waiting for a fledgling to arise.

"Buffy?"

At the sound of her name being called, she revolved around with a appearance of anticipation on her face, momentarily and was as predictable discontented not to find a specific souled vampire standing there – a vampire whom had sailed away six months earlier on her birthday with The Judge's arm. But it was just her overactive imagination turning the feminine teenaged voice of Willow into the profound brooding baritone of Angel's.

"Oh, hey Wils," she said trying to cover up the disenchantment.

Willow squeezed onto the grave marker next to her, "Why are you still out here? Kendra has already been back to library and given Giles her report."

"It's that damn fledgling," she told her. "It just won't rise."

"Oh."

Buffy all of a sudden looked at her best friend with suspicion, "How did you get out here? You know you shouldn't be wandering around Sunnyhell alone at night."

"Don't worry, I wasn't alone. Kendra was walking me home and I spotted you over here. I told her that you'd finish up the job."

"Fine with me."

"So... care to tell me why you've been a Cordy all day?"

Buffy's eyes widened in astonishment and bewilderment at her friend's tone and words, "A Cordy?"

"You know – a right bitca."

The two girls exchanged a look and started to giggle, "Have to admit that was a good one, Wils."

Willow sighed at Buffy's not so skilful avoidance of the subject matter, "Well?"

"It's nothing much. I've just been having a feeling..."

"A feeling?"

"That something is going to happen. Something really big."

"Good or bad?"

Buffy shook her head, her blonde ponytail swishing around her shoulders as she did so. "I don't know."

Further discussion was for the time being restricted by the detail that the fledgling vampire at long last chose to arise from his grave. Willow basically sat back and watched the passionately vicious ballet as Buffy fought and more or less too effortlessly dusted the young vampire.

Shortly thereafter the twosome started on their saunter to Willow's residence, both disregarding – for the moment – Buffy's feeling. They spent the time conversing about school, homework, wide-ranging gossip and their friends. They had virtually arrived when Willow - not so delicately - turned the dialogue to a painful topic, Angel. Everyone had stayed away from the hypersensitive subject matter of Buffy's absent undead sweetheart for the six months he had been gone, anxious of how she would act in response to the heart-to-heart.

"What about him?" Buffy responded, cautiously choosing her words.

"Maybe," Willow suggested. "He's your feeling."

"Huh?"

"Maybe what you've been feeling is that he's coming home before long."

"Do you really think so? I haven't felt him in so long, I'm not sure I still can."

Willow looked at her, "What do you mean?"

Buffy looked down at her feet in a more or less embarrassed manner, "It's just I've been without him longer than I've been with him and..."

Willow impetuously hugged her friend, "Buffy, don't worry about it. I am sure once he's back, it will like he never left."

Buffy looked at her friend with a tentative smile playing on her lips. "Do you really think so?"

"Of course," Willow answered. "You two are meant to be – like Romeo and Juliet."

"I'm not so sure I like that assessment," Buffy said. "That ended way too badly..."

"Buffy..." Willow whined. "Let's just drop the subject."

"Okay."

"So if the feeling is not Angel," Willow said. "What do you think it could be?"

"A really big bad looking to kill Kendra and me."

"Then wouldn't Kendra also have this feeling?"

"I suppose..."

The reached Willow's house and Willow turned to her and said, "Trust me, I can feel it. Whatever it is, it will be a good thing."

"I believe you," Buffy replied unpersuasively as she watched her walk to the door. "Goodnight, Wils."

"Night, Buffy. I'll see you at school tomorrow."

She waited a slight ways down the street until she saw Willow's bedroom light go on before heading off towards her own house. She was only appreciative that her mother was once again out of town on one of her buying trips so that she didn't have to climb back through the bedroom window since she was all of a sudden almost overcome with exhaustion.

Letting herself indoors, she hung up her coat and went upstairs to her room. Deciding she was presently too exhausted to call Giles with the slaying report – she decided that he could wait for the morning – she swiftly put on her black satin pyjama bottoms and red cotton tank top and just about crawled into her comfortable double bed and instantaneously she fell fast asleep.

* * *

Her dreams were as customary a mishmash, but this occasion it seemed in some way more disordered. She found herself at The Bronze bordered by her associates, allies and enemies both past and present; all speaking at once and dancing around in circles making her lightheaded. Desperately she closed her eyes, sank to her knees and prayed for it to immediately stop before she went absolutely mad.

After what gave the impression to her of being an eternity, she opened her eyes and found herself in an austere white chamber. She looked around her but saw nothing but a tenuous, intensifying vapour and she felt the necessity to cry – something she hadn't done in months. She was so bewildered and terrified at not knowing what could possibly be going on.

"Champion!"

Buffy looked to the rear herself and saw two gold coloured individuals – one male and one female – standing on a platform that she swore was not there a few minutes previous. Eying them sceptically she spoke, "Who are you?"

The male of the pair look amused, "We are The Oracles."

"And we have summoned you," the female added.

"Present your offering."

Buffy looked at them incredulously, "Excuse me?"

"You must give us something in exchange for our information," the female one clarified.

Buffy burst out laughing at what was going on. "Let me get this straight. You summoned me here to apparently tell me something, but in order for you to tell me whatever this is I have to give you a present?"

"Yes," they responded in tandem.

The female looked her over, "What about your necklace?"

Her hand immediately flew to her throat where she wore the silver cross and the ring Angel had given her on a chain and shook her head. "No way. Angel gave me it."

"Ah, the vampire –" the male said with a grimace.

"The ring with the stone," the female demanded.

Buffy looked down at her right hand and noticed the tiny gold ring with the emerald chip in it that her father had sent her for her birthday. She pulled it off of her hand with little emotion, "Take it."

"Very well," the female said. "Place it on the stand."

Buffy did as she was told and then stepped back and waited for the disconcerting gold people before her to get on with it – whatever they wanted to do or say. However as an alternative they took their time examining their trinket and consequently pushed the youthful slayer's tolerance to the absolute limit.

"It will do," the female toned eventually.

"And so..."

The male chose to speak, "We have a mission for you."

"A mission? Before you told me that it was information."

The female laughed, "A mission or information, they are the same thing to us."

"No, they're not," Buffy informed her growing increasingly angrier with each passing instant.

"Be silent. This mission is of the highest consequence – a matter of life or death."

That one statement got Buffy's full attention, "What is it?"

"You are needed to protect the lives of four children and aid in a war in another world."

"These children, the Pevensies are very critical both in our world and the other. Aslan asked us for our help and we felt that we could not deny his request," the female added.

"Aslan? What is an Aslan?"

"That is not of any great consequence. What is essential is that you are the only one who can help."

"And that we had to wait many years for this moment to arrive."

"Because of this we must of course send you back in time-"

"What? Where? When?"

"London, England."

"Nineteen forty one."

Buffy blanched at the very notion, "Old time land of Giles – I so don't think so."

"You will go, there is too much at stake for you to not go. There are two worlds-"

"Okay," Buffy replied affronted. "Just one thing though..."

"Yes," the male replied.

"I somehow don't think I am going to fit in with nineteen forties London. I am very much a child of the future."

"When you arrive you will be dressed appropriately for the period. You will on the other hand have to watch your speech and use of modern slang."

"Meaning?" Buffy asked insulted.

"You will have to speak as a conventional person would."

"Are you ready to depart?"

"Wait!" Buffy yelled. "Don't I even get to tell Giles or say goodbye to everyone?"

"No."

"It is not necessary. You will not be gone long enough for anyone to notice."

"Well-"

She was rudely cut off, "Good enough."

The unexpected awareness she had was attention-grabbing to say the least, sort of like she was liquefying. She looked down and got to observe as her body gradually vanished into the void. "What the-"

"Do you think she is ready?" the female asked.

"What I think is that she is Aslan's problem now."

End Part

* * *

** Translations**:

Putus Magus Pure Magic/al (Latin)

El Boca de Inferno the Mouth of Hell (Spanish)

** Lyrics**:

Beautiful Disaster by Kelly Clarkson


	2. Back In Time

** Chapter One: Back in Time**

_ /No turning back, I've come too far/_

**London, England – 1941**

When Buffy at long last rematerialised, she found herself in the middle of a hectic sidewalk being manhandled by the multitude of commuters and shoppers moving both ways. After a few minutes she managed to work her way over to the side and duck down a shadowy alleyway to sort out just what was going on.

She could recollect that a moment previously she was in the Oracles chamber and they had sent her back through time to give support to some children with a bizarre surname. She could not help but bemoan her fate – yet again - why was she always put in ridiculous situations for the so-called greater good of the world.

Looking downwards to ensure if her body had arrived in the accurate proportions she found out two things. Firstly that she was all there and seemingly in the correct places and secondly that she was wearing some sort of school uniform. A red blazer, white shirt, red and gold tie and a plain gray skirt, she didn't even want to think about the clunky school shoes adorning her feet. The ridiculous gold guys had told her she would arrive appropriately dressed, but no one had mentioned that she'd have to wear a uniform or attend old time school.

If only Xander and Willow could see me now, she thought as she courageously came to a decision to confront whatever they had done to her hair to get it to complement the hideous clothing. Slowly running her hand over her head she was reassured that it seemed to be as lengthy as it was before her jaunt to the past and only held back by some sort of clip. Unquestionably those so-called Oracles should be thankful for they would not have liked the angry Buffy or what she would have done to them if they had done something to her hair.

Feeling a little more reassured that she at least looked as though she belonged, she stepped out onto the sidewalk once more and then realised something else. She had absolutely no inspiration where to go or what she was intended to do, other than find those children and as expected she had no idea about where to commence that search.

It was then that she caught sight of them, a crowd of girls – all teenagers – wearing the exact same outfit. Trailing at the back of them, she followed them down the street to a building with an outsized lion statue in front and a sign that said London Underground. She continued to shadow them until she lost them in the horde leading to a flight of steps, not having anything better to do she went down it.

At the bottom of the flight of steps she found herself part of a generously proportioned group and intrigued – or rather being blatantly inquisitive – she moved as close as she could to the front of the group to see what was going on. Once there she could see two boys trouncing upon another one of around the equivalent age and just as she was about to lose interest in basically one more demonstration of male testosterone she heard one of them call their casualty "Pevensie."

Could it in reality have been so uncomplicated to find one of them? She was knocked out of her thoughts and out of the way, by a double act of dark haired girls who were methodically pushing their way to the front of the crowd. She would have said something to them about their discourtesy – after all weren't the olden days supposed to be a time of respectful teenagers – but in its place found herself looking intently into the eyes of the Pevensie boy when he fleetingly looked up.

She just about laughed at the ridiculousness of the moment, an unintended meeting of the eyes and the fact that had in reality smiled at her even though he was at that moment in time being beaten to a pulp. She watched as he was pulled back into the brawl against the two bullies, but he was soon joined by a dark haired boy, the younger of the two girls called him, "Edmund."

Buffy found herself engrossed in the exchange of blows, scrutinising and critiquing the fighting style of the two teenagers. She could in point of fact approve of some of the techniques that they were using; in fact it was more or less as if they had received some sort of instruction in them.

The boys were on the threshold of turning the fight around when shouting and ear-splitting whistles indicated the entrance of two military policemen who were there to break up the brawl. The boys who started the fight ran away and left the two for the most part blameless ones behind to face the consequences. Fortuitously they escaped from the circumstance with a aggressive, "Act your age," thrown at them.

Deciding that it was now or never to bring about her approach, she may possibly never get an additional chance or an improved opportunity than the one that had presented itself. Taking a deep breath she made her way over to where the group of four were standing and looked unswervingly at the eldest boy as she spoke.

"Are you all right?" she asked with concern in her voice.

He looked up and turned a bright pink from embarrassment when he saw who was talking to him, the girl he had spotted during the fight. "I – uh – ah..."

"What he **means**," the younger boy answered. "Is that he's fine. By the way Pete – you're welcome."

"Who are you, anyway?" the youngest girl asked with unadulterated inquisitiveness.

"Oh, I'm Buffy – Buffy Summers; a new student."

The older girl looked at her somewhat apprehensively, "And an American."

"Yes, I'm from California," she replied a little awkwardly.

The boy – Edmund – spoke up again, "Why would you want to come here? We're at war."

Buffy sighed and endeavoured to perform to the best of her imperfect capability as she noiselessly cursed herself for skipping all of her drama classes. "No choice really; my parents are in the middle of a messy divorce and my mother sent me here to visit some relatives. Only it turns out I am as much in the way here as I am back home."

She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to find the older girl there, sympathy splashed across her face. "Don't worry so much. Lu and I will show you around."

"Thanks."

"I'm Susan by the way. That's Lucy, Edmund and the idiot over there is Peter."

Buffy smiled, "Nice to meet you all."

The group moved away from the flight of stairs and walked over to an undersized bench next to a tunnel wall. Buffy, the other two girls and Edmund all took a seat, but Peter remained standing and paced back and forth. After a minute or two of this his reasoning became clear when he stood in front of Susan.

"I am not an idiot."

"Really," she replied. "If you're not, just what was the fight about this time?"

"He bumped me."

Lucy looked horrified and Buffy tried not to laugh. "So you hit him?"

"No. After he bumped **me**he tried to make **me** apologise. That's when I hit him."

A snort escaped from Buffy and the four Pevensie's shot her dirty looks and she was overcome with the need to explain herself. "Sorry, but as long as everyone is all right, why go over and over it?"

"Because it's turning into a regular occurrence," Susan replied. "Peter cannot control his temper."

Peter began pacing again, "It's not that."

"What?" Buffy asked.

"Don't you ever get tired of being treated like a kid?"

Edmund looked at his brother, "We are kids."

Lucy suddenly stood up yelling, "Ouch."

"Yikes!" Buffy said jumping up and moving over next to Peter.

"Quit it guys," Susan responded.

"Something pinched me."

Peter whirled around, "Stop –"

Susan suddenly stood up, "What is that?"

"Feels like magic," Lucy said excitedly.

"Magic?" Buffy asked.

"Quick everyone hold hands," Susan yelled as wind started to blow through the tunnel, no one but the group of five even seeing it.

"I'm not holding your hand," Edmund objected as Susan grabbed one of his and one of Lucy's.

Before Buffy could even realise what was happening she felt Peter take hold of her hand and the lose one of Lucy's and the five of them held on to each other as the wind whipped faster and faster and an express train with seemingly no end began to pass them, as portions of the underground tunnel started to soar past them – bricks, lights and posters. The tunnel wall in a straight line across from them blew outwards and as the train at long last passed them by, the quintet found themselves standing in a cave that led out onto the most faultless beach and ocean that Buffy had ever laid eyes on.

They strolled out of the grotto and onto the sand and Buffy breathed in the invigorating aroma that made her contemplate home and every person she was missing. Pushing out-of-the-way the feelings that were in no doubt to devastate her if left unconstrained, she looked at her new friends and saw the luminous smiles on their faces.

"Where are we?"

"Narnia," Lucy replied smiling off at something she had just now remembered.

Buffy just stared, "That doesn't really help."

The three youngest Pevensie's hurried past her and into the adjacent water, frolicking and laughing like there was no tomorrow. Buffy looked up and saw that Peter was just standing there looking at her, staring attentively as if trying to figure something out.

"Aren't you going to join them?"

Peter shook his head, "Maybe later. You are right, you do need an explanation."

"Okay."

"Follow me," Peter told her as he walked a short way from his siblings and sat in the sand, gazing out at the ocean.

Buffy sat down next to him, her curiosity growing moment by moment. Just what was he going to tell her? It was obvious – and would be obvious to even the dumbest person – that this place was magic, but Buffy could feel it. An ancient magic of light and dark that was used to create the very soul of this world. Was that why she had been chosen for this? Because she could feel the essence of Narnia or was there something more to it, something she could not yet see?

"Well," he began suddenly breaking her from her reverie. "It all began when we were staying with the Professor. Lucy was bored so we decided to play a game..."

End Part

* * *

** Lyrics**:

By Trisha Yearwood – Wrong Side of Memphis


	3. Unexpected Ruins

**Chapter Two:Insperatus Fragmen**

_/I'll get past the what was  
If I live long enough/_

Buffy was unacquainted for just how long she and Peter sat there on the shimmering white sand as she paid attention to his account of the tale of their first trip to Narnia, of how they vanquished an malevolent witch; restoring peace to the land and becoming Kings and Queens of Narnia.

When he was at long last done, she looked away from him and gazed out at the unsoiled aqua coloured ocean and wondered just how she was supposed to respond to all she had just been told. She speculated that in a perfect world that this would be the time to come clean with all of her secrets and permit the group to move on, but even though this stretch of Narnia was gorgeous; she guessed that it was hardly a perfect world and so she kept quiet.

"Well?" he questioned, a little perturbed with her sustained silence.

Sighing, she slipped out of her blazer and removed the tie from around her neck. "I believe you."

"You do?" Peter replied in bewilderment. He must have expected her to dispute or put up some refuse to accept to his tale. "Why?"

Buffy merely shot him a glare that evidently said, 'are you barmy.' "Well... since we were just transported to another world via magic, I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt."

"Peter!" a female voice called out. "Come join us."

Buffy glimpsed over to where the others were playing in the waves and saw that it was the youngest one, Lucy, which was beckoning her brother to the group – as though they could not be separated for more than a few minutes at a time. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Peter standing up and brushing the sand off of his school trousers.

"Are you coming?" he asked her, holding out his right hand to help her up.

She shook her head, "No. I'm just gonna sit here for a while and sort out today's events." When he didn't make a move she spoke again, "Go ahead. I guarantee I'll be fine."

"If you're sure..." he said to some extent unhappily, as he retracted his hand and gave her one last look before he went off to join his siblings in their play.

Once he was gone, she could not avoid peeking over at the four of them splashing about – happy-go-lucky – getting pleasure from spending the time together, for the moment simply being kids and she felt the acrimony increase in her heart. When was the last time she had been allowed to be just a kid?

For certain it was before Merrick had told her she was The Slayer at the inexperienced age of fifteen. No, it was even before that. In Los Angeles, before her parents split-up, she had been taking care of herself – and hiding the damage under her designer smokescreen – and all because when she had turned eleven she had been left on her own while her parents worked and socialised with friends, leaving her at home. It was a wonder they had even noticed the slayer-stuff at all.

Sure her mother had tried, in part, to make it up to her once the divorce was through and they had moved to Sunnydale. However as time went by things had been reverting with her mother constantly at work or out of town on business trips, but this time she hadn't been bothered. She was used to it and at least now she'd had the gang and Angel to keep her normal and give her a purpose to keep in the fight.

Taking a profound and comforting breath, she tried to centre her mind on something else and that is when she became aware that Edmund had stopped playing and splashing about and was staring attentively at something. Standing up, she brushed the sand off of her skirt and legs and looked in the identical direction as he.

She could see a ruin of some sort set high up on top of a precipitous, rock-strewn cliff. A little apprehensive at the height of the cliff-face – even slayers can get vertigo – she inched her way over to the others, just in time to hear their discussion.

"What is it?"

"Where do you think we are?" Edmund asked suddenly.

Peter just looked at him, "Well... where do you think?"

"It's just I don't remember there being any ruins in Narnia."

The other three Pevensies joined Buffy and Edmund in staring at the remnants, speculating about what was once all the way up there. The group exchanged glances and Buffy all of a sudden knew that she was going to have to deal with her uncomfortableness at the elevation, because she was going to have to climb it.

Climbing up the cliff-face took the group the majority of the day, even with using an ancient path that had been carved into the rock. It was so weather-beaten, slippery and damaged in parts that it took forever to get up, in particular when you had to remain with the group and not use your slayer strength and agility to do it in half the time.

When they at long last reached the zenith of the cliff, the five of them collapsed on an unkempt patch of grass to respite. Everyone's additional clothing items were removed and discarded in an endeavour to cool down and take it easy after the exhaustion of climbing. Edmund and Lucy collected apples from an adjacent tree and the group munched on them trying to restore their dwindling energy levels.

After approximately half an hour Peter recommended that it was time to get on with it and look around the ruins. Every person – particularly Buffy – uttered their protestations at moving so soon after the climb, but in the end they all did get up.

They split up with each one taking a segment of the ruin to look over. Buffy couldn't help but run her fingers over the smooth stone and marble work that was left and speculate what had once stood proudly at this picturesque position. Whatever it was, she had decided that it had to have been extremely distinguished.

Ahead of her she watched as Lucy walked – barefoot – out onto what she thought was an old balcony. Even from her discrete distance, Buffy could see the astonishment in the younger girl's eyes as she looked out of Narnia and drank in the vista.

"I wonder who used to live here?" she yelled so that each person could hear her.

Since she had been thinking the same thing and had absolutely no answers, so she remained quiet and continued her examination. She kept on walking until she stumbled over something solid that had been concealed in the grass and weeds, picking it up she found that she held something made of gold.

As she was looking at it, Susan came over to join her and a flash of recognition crossed her eyes as she took hold of it. "It's impossible," she yelled to the group. "But I think that we used to live here."

Like a tidal wave they congregated around the two girls, all desperate to take a look at the artefact that had encouraged Susan's bold statement. Each one held it and searched their memories until it came to Edmund's turn and then they were surprised.

"That's mine," he told them. "From my chess set."

"Which chess set?" Peter asked moving over to stand next to Buffy, who did not even appear to notice him.

Edmund shot Peter a dirty look, "I didn't exactly have a solid gold chess set in Finchley, did I?"

Lucy shook her head, as if trying to rid her mind of images she did not want to see. "It can't be."

Lucy took off running and the others pursued, anxious that in her state of mind the young girl may accidently injure herself. They found her standing on what remained of a raised area, where at the rear of her sat the remnants of four items. She beckoned her siblings up there with her and at accomplishing that goal, set about lining them up in an order Buffy could not figure out.

"Imagine walls and column over there," she told him pointing. "And a glass roof..."

A collective look of dreadfulness and revelation came over their faces. That was when Peter whispered, "Cair Paravel."

"Cara what?"

"Cair Paravel," Susan replied her voice husky with emotion. "It was our palace – where we lived, ruled and played."

"Oh," Buffy answered. "So what happened?"

"I don't know," Peter responded determinedly, his High King persona firmly in place. "But I am going to find out."

They continued to scrutinize the area, this time though they all stuck together. Buffy deduced that the reasoning had something to do with the actuality that they were traumatised that these ruins 

had once been their residence and they were terrified of what else they might find. Abruptly Edmund broke away from them and set about investigating a construction that looked extraneous when matched up to its surroundings.

"Catapults."

Peter looked at Edmund in confusion, "What?"

"This didn't just happen."

"Well duh," Buffy interrupted. "Things don't go all ruined overnight."

Edmund merely glared at her and continued, "Cair Paravel was attacked."

The girls gasped in horror at Edmund's announcement, while Buffy stared out at the view. She didn't have an emotional association to this world or to this ruin, so it just didn't trouble her with what was said about it. While Edmund and the girls were hypothesizing, she did become aware that Peter had wandered off and she gave into the spontaneous decision to follow him.

He didn't go exceptionally far, only around a corner and on a small ways, but she did observe that he gave the impression that he was searching for something specific and he was so caught up in his pursuit that he never even detected that she was there with him.

"What'cha doing?"

He jumped and gave a small shriek in surprise, "You scared me."

"I could tell."

Red faced, he went back to his task, "I'm looking for our treasure hold-"

"Treasure?" she questioned. "Like rubies and pearls?"

"No," he told her. "More like our belongings." It was then he seemed to find something, "Yes."

"Found it?"

He smiled at her, "I did." Then he turned and yelled, "Guys, come here."

The others materialized more or less instantaneously and smiled when they realised just what Peter was up to. Edmund joined him as they moved a succession of branches out of the way and a false stone wall that exposed the existence of an old wooden door behind it.

Peter, in a hurry, broke the door down – an effortless task seeing as it was so ancient that it was more or less rotted through – and uncovered the darkness of the interior of the building. Perceptibly needing a way to illuminate way inside, he ripped a narrow piece off of the front of his school shirt and wrapped it around one of the smaller branches.

"I don't suppose any of you have any matches?"

Edmund rummaged through his satchel and pulled something out. "No, but would this help?"

Peter grabbed the torch and laughed at his brother's joke. "You might've mentioned that a bit sooner."

With Peter illuminating the route they headed into the interior with Buffy bringing up the rear. A few metres into the building steps commenced and as they gradually descended them, it seemed as though there was a interminable quantity of them and then all of a sudden they were at the bottom. Passing through a set of wrought iron gates, they entered a shadowy chamber that contained four statues – one for each Pevensie – with a chest positioned in front of each.

"I can't believe it," Peter said the wonder evident in his voice. "It's all still here."

With nothing else to do, Buffy sat down on a pile of rubble that was just about the right height for a seat and watched as the others all went through their personal belongings from long ago. Her attention was drawn to Lucy as she pulled out a dress from her chest and laughed.

"I was so tall."

"Well," Susan answered logically from her position next to her. "You were older then."

"As opposed to hundreds of years later... when you're younger," Edmund added as he put a helmet on his head.

Laughing still, Lucy went over to Buffy and handed her the dress. "Here you go," she told her bashfully.

"Um – thank you," Buffy responded to the unanticipated gift.

"Oh, come on, Lu," Edmund said looking at the dress Lucy had beforehand held up. "Do you in reality think that will fit her? She's only just taller than you are now."

Susan smacked her younger brother and started to say something to him, but Buffy wasn't listening, she was to spellbound looking at what she had been gifted. The dress was in extraordinarily good condition taking into consideration just how old it must be. It was long and flowing in an intermediate green colour with graceful flowers embroidered around the collar, long sleeves and hem.

Minutes later Buffy found herself concerned by the resonance of a disgruntled groan, she took the justification to look up and found that the commotion had come from Susan who was digging through her trunk looking for something almost hysterically.

What was going on was soon sorted out by Lucy. "What is it?"

"My horn," the teenager whined. "I must've left it on my saddle the day we went back."

"Are you sure?"

Susan nodded, "I've been through everything. It's just not here."

"Don't worry. You'll find it," Lucy assured her. "I can feel it."

Buffy twisted away from the sisters and endeavoured to chase away the awkward feeling. That insignificant talk between the sisters had reminded her too much of the very last conversation that she'd had with Willow. The one where her best friend had made an effort to persuade her that everything was going to be all right.

Blinking back the unforeseen sniffle, she sidetracked herself by looking up and seeing what the rest were up to. As she elevated her eyes she caught sight of Peter grabbing an elaborate sword with a lion's head and unsheathed it. He scrutinized it in the murky light and Buffy just about gasped in approbation at the weapon and speculated cunningly how much persuasion he may possibly need in order to let her try it out.

"When Aslan bears his teeth, winter meets its death-"

"When he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again," Lucy finished. Her tiny face crumpled in supreme melancholy, "Everyone we knew - Mr. Tumnus and The Beavers – they're all gone."

Seeing an opportunity Peter decided to take charge, "I think it's time we found out what's going on."

"And we will," Susan added. "As soon as you and Ed leave us to change our clothes."

"Are you sure," Peter said. "I could stay and make sure..."

Edmund looked at Peter, "They are our sisters."

"Not all of them," Peter whispered back.

Edmund shook his head, "You are mental."

Susan looked at the two expectedly, "Are you going or not?"

"We're going," Edmund said as he grabbed hold of Peter.

The two boys left the chamber, all the time Edmund was complaining about girls and clothes, grumbling that was so piercing that it could be clearly heard by the girls. Once they were gone the girls set about changing out of their school clothes and into Narnian clothing.

As soon as Buffy freed herself from the scratchy textile of the school uniform, she felt immeasurable release and a sensation of being closer to her true self than she'd been for hours. Standing there in a white slip, more or less identical to the one Susan wore; she picked up the dress and stepped into it. However when she pulled it up onto her shoulders she found that she could no longer reach the fastenings on the back of it.

"Here," Susan said seeing her difficulty. "Let me help."

Susan did up the dress and Buffy marvelled at the reality that it fit, even if it were made for somebody a good five inches taller than she was. It was then that she wished fervently for a mirror so she could see how dreadful she was looking and then questioned why she even cared, it wasn't like she had anyone to make an impression upon. Before they went outside, they took turns doing each other's hair so that it matched their outfits, which in essence meant that Buffy's earlier hair style was repeated, where she held it to some extent back with a clip.

When they ultimately went outside, Edmund pushed past them muttering about how he would never comprehend girls and something less capable of being heard which Buffy decided she didn't wish to know because without a doubt it would not have been flattering to her gender. Peter followed him, virtually falling down the stairs after telling the girls that they looked lovely.

Buffy collapsed down onto the grass where the boys had been sitting while they waited and questioned how she was ever going to walk in the dress without killing herself. She didn't become aware of the exchange of looks between the sisters or the fact that they were inching closer to her.

"So... Buffy," Susan said sitting down next to her. "Tell us about yourself?"

"Like what?" Buffy replied as she was surrounded.

"Anything..."

"And everything," Lucy added from her other side.

"Uh – I'm not very interesting."

"I doubt that," Lucy said.

"Okay," Buffy began. "I'm an only child, with no pets and parents who despise each other. That just about wraps me up."

"What about a boyfriend?" Lucy asked.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Well... you don't think Peter thought we looked pretty. Did you?" Susan said.

The conversation was stalled – at least temporarily – by the return of the boys, who had managed to change in a fifth of the time it had taken the girls. Buffy had to admit they did not look like a bunch of school children anymore and she warily eyed Peter, attempting to ignore Susan's speculation. A boy with a crush is something she just did not need right now.

"Well... shall we get to it then?"

End Part

**Notes:**

I want to thank everyone for their reviews and support and also to thank Tychompx for correcting some of the Latin boo-boos and giving me a much better site in which to translate them.

**Translations**:

Insperatus Fragmen Unexpected Ruins (Latin)

**Lyrics**:

LeAnn Rimes – One Of These Days


	4. Dear Little Friend

**Chapter Three: Dear Little Friend**

_ /Cause I'm down on my knees  
don't you feel anything/_

They had been on the move for what appeared like forever - in actuality it had most likely been only a couple of hours. However since those couple of hours had incorporated a trip back down the cliff (this time in a long dress) and walking across miles of sand following Peter's so-called directions (from how many hundreds of years ago?), Buffy was not a cheerful girl. In fact she could feel her inner brat rising to the surface and when showed its face it was never an attractive sight.

She knew that she shouldn't be feeling this way, she was used to physical exhaustion – it was part of her everyday life as The Slayer. If she had chosen to look a little deeper into her reactions, she might have found that her appalling disposition stemmed from the fact that she was feeling out of place. So far the Pevensie siblings didn't seem to require her help or her protection; in fact they seemed more than capable of doing it for themselves.

As they came over a sandy rise the group spotted a row boat in the distance with what appeared to be two figures aboard. Buffy was to some extent reassured; this meant that they had found somebody – someone who'd give an explanation as to what the hell was going on with this place. That was until the figures in the boat stood up and had what appeared to be a package in the arms, until it moved that is. Realising that what they were about to drown was a living being, the five of them raced to the apex of the sand, where Susan aimed her trusty bow and arrow at them.

"Drop him," she commanded forcefully.

Regrettably for the diminutive individual those on the boat did as she told them to do and dropped their hostage into the bitter water, where he without delay sank. Both Peter and Edmund threw down their weapons and dove into the water focussed on rescuing the poor personage.

In the meantime on the boat one of the people took aim at the left behind group and Susan had no alternative but to shoot him, leaving the other one to jump overboard and swim away unscathed. Within minutes both Peter and Edmund had returned to them on the shore, one with the row boat in tow and the other carrying what looked to Buffy to be a height-challenged person. After Peter placed him on the sand, Lucy knelt down next to him and by means of her small dagger she cut away his bindings. When she was done she scurried back to the security of Susan's reach.

"Drop him!" the dwarf said coughing from the forced swallowing of water. "That's the best you could come up with?"

"A simple thank you would suffice," Susan replied slightly affronted that her help had not been appreciated.

"They were doing fine drowning me without your help."

Peter glared at the rude little man, "Maybe we should've let them."

"Maybe we should kill him now," Buffy added supportively. At the group's and the dwarf's glare she sighed, "It was a joke. Like I would ever kill anything."

"Why were they trying to kill you anyway?" Lucy asked their guest.

"They're Telmarines – that's what they do."

"Telmarines? In Narnia?" Peter questioned vehemently.

The dwarf just stared at them like they were senseless, "Where have you been for the past few hundred years..."

"It's a bit of a story actually," Lucy told him.

He looked at them each in turn, together with Buffy – if you consider a malevolent defiant stare as a look. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me. You're it? You're the Kings and Queens of old?"

Peter stepped forward extending his right hand for a handshake, "High King Peter, the Magnificent."

"Magnificent?" Buffy asked trying not to laugh. She simply couldn't help it, it just sounded so tasteless to introduce yourself that way.

"You probably could've left off the last bit," Susan told him in much the same predicament as Buffy.

Their guest did not bother to restrain himself and chuckled out loud, "Probably."

Peter was as expected affronted and to some extent discomfited by the reactions of those around him, but chose to take the high road and take no notice of them. "You might be surprised."

As Peter unsheathed his sword, the group stared at him apprehensive at what he might possibly be planning to do with it. Wasn't he going to go too far? Buffy was a little panicky, sure she had recommended slaughtering the dwarf, but she'd only meant it a little.

"Oh... you don't want to do that, boy."

Peter smirked, "Not me – him."

Peter handed his sword to the dwarf – much to the relief of the girls – as Edmund unsheathed his own blade and settled into his recognizable battle stance. His diminutive adversary seemed to be taking a minute to work out the weight and balance of the untried weapon, which was until he attacked Edmund with a swiftness and ferociousness that surprised the onlookers.

"Edmund," Lucy cried in astonishment.

"Aw, are you all right?" the dwarf asked facetiously.

Edmund's face turned bright red with a combination of physical exertion and mortification, but he continued on without missing a single beat. The clashing of swords in an instantly recognizable dance of combat had everybody absolutely mesmerised, with the exception of Buffy who was speaking faintly to herself about what moves and counter moves she would make if she was one of the combatants.

Of course it did not make it any easier that the longer and more vigorous the sword fight became the more the necessity to kick ass rose within her being. It had simply been way too long since she'd had a thoroughly good quality slay – as of late the worth of vampires and demons in Sunnydale had been slipping. She considered that the anxiety of the circumstances must have been getting to her for quite a while if she felt the inclination to wrestle a dwarf.

Edmund won in the end, he used his proficiency to drive his adversary to his knees and knock the blade from his grasp and out of reach, and then pointing the sharp edge to his throat. The younger boy was breathing vigorously, but had the triumphant victory radiance that all warriors get when they have won the battle.

"Maybe," he wheezed out painfully. "That horn worked after all."

"What horn?" Susan questioned.

"Susan, there is no need to be rude," Peter chastised his sister.

"If I were you..." Susan shot back. "I wouldn't be casting any stones."

"What do you mean by that?"

Buffy deposited herself between the furious siblings and then turned towards Peter. "She means that handing someone a sword and having them fight your own brother, isn't exactly well-mannered behaviour."

"You're taking her side?"

"I'm on no one's side," Buffy replied with tremendous exasperation. "I just think that we'd be better off listening to the short guy-"

"The name's Trumpkin," he told them. "Now do you want to know what's going on or not?"

The assemblage stopped what they were doing and looked at the most recent edition to their diverse gang, to a certain extent astonished at just how authoritative the dwarf could in reality be. Devoid of disagreement they - each and every one - turned their complete concentration to him.

"Okay," said Peter, speaking for them all. "Go ahead."

Trumpkin paced up and down in front of the group, hesitant of where to commence. After an internal deliberation he determined precisely where he should start and how much they should know. "There is a prophecy; I suppose that is what you would call it. The whisperings of it started just after you went away and the Telmarines started to invade. The essentials of it were that in the time of Narnia's utmost need, the worthy one would blow the horn and summon the Kings and Queens of old."

"Well, here we are," Lucy said smiling at him.

"Although I thought that there were only four of you..."

Buffy shrugged her shoulders in a 'who me' gesture. "I'm no Queen, simply an undemanding by-stander drawn into this wacky world."

Peter endeavoured to get the discussion back on track, "So somebody worthy blew Susan's horn and called us here?"

"Yes."

"Who?" Buffy asked.

"That Telmarine Prince," Trumpkin answered. "Caspian's his name."

Peter shook his head in incredulity, "The worthy one is a Telmarine?"

"Well if it makes you feel any better, I don't think he's remarkably well-liked with the other Telmarines – since they were trying to kill him the last time I saw him."

"So what do we do now?" Lucy asked the dwarf.

"We find Caspian."

End Part

* * *

**Lyrics**:

Katie Arminger – Make Me Believe


	5. What Lucy Saw

**Chapter Four:Qui Quae Que Quod Lucy Animadverto**

_/Life is a journey constantly turning  
Down an unknown path/_

She wasn't certain how it came to pass, but it had and at the moment she and the others were squeezed into the Telmarine's abandoned row boat. Of course she hadn't had much of an alternative and neither had the others, for as much as High King Peter (the Pig-Headed – her new name for him) proclaimed that Cair Paravel was on the mainland – it just was not so anymore. Regrettably it had taken him three trips around the minuscule island – dragging everyone with him – for him to see that and consequently the six of them had been required to spend the night on the beach.

Buffy was simply not a seafaring individual and in fact she was not coping at all well with the moderate rocking of the boat as Peter rowed. Her stomach was rolling and she was trying her level best not to throw up all over unfortunate Edmund, who had the ill-fated luck of sitting beside during the expedition to the mainland.

Something to be tremendously appreciative for however was that the Pevensies were so caught up in staring at the surroundings – trying to see what had changed – that they hadn't become aware of the fact that she was turning green and was about to toss her cookies. Although she had a suspicion that Trumpkin knew and was surreptitiously laughing at her – that evil dwarf.

They had been rowing for quite a while when Lucy unexpectedly focused on a considerable grouping of trees. "They're so still," she whispered.

"They're trees," Trumpkin replied brusquely. "What did you expect?"

Edmund shot Trumpkin a dirty look over what he had just said to Lucy. Buffy had no notion as to why that tree thing was so significant, as far as she knew a tree was a tree and nothing more. Even though, one could deduce that things might be dissimilar in a magical land... but she really didn't care.

"They used to dance," Lucy insisted.

Trumpkin sighed, "It wasn't long after you lot left that the Telmarines invaded. Those who survived retreated to the woods. The trees retreated so deep into themselves that they haven't been heard from since."

Lucy was horrified, "I don't understand. How could Aslan have let this happen?"

"Aslan? Thought he abandoned us when you lot did."

Buffy observed – and was for a moment diverted from her own predicament – as the maudlin looks were exchanged amongst the Pevensies and for some unidentified motivation she felt the unexpected inclination to offer reassurance. But even as thought entered her mind she decided against it, after all Susan and Lucy had each other, Edmund seemed to be self-sufficient and Peter, well she didn't want to be offering him anything.

Ever since Susan and Lucy's insignificant observation earlier she had been more conscious of him and she did not like it one bit. Theoretically he was a lot older than her – in both worlds – but then so was Angel... That brainwave was sufficient to end the internal debate, she and Angel were still officially together – at least she thought so - the situation was a little confusing.

"You know we didn't mean to leave," Peter told the dwarf, breaking Buffy from her thoughts.

"Makes no difference now, does it?"

Throwing all of her intentions out of the window at the expression on his face, it was just so grief-stricken. Before she had even consciously realised it, she had placed one of her hands on his knee. Peter looked up at her, strength of mind and something in addition that she could not quite recognize blazing in his clear blue eyes. It shocked her so profoundly that she withdrew her hand speedily and looked away from him.

"Get us to the Narnians," Peter said loud and clear. "And I know it will."

Buffy had by no means ever been so delighted to see dry land in her young life. The second she had spotted it, she could've jumped for joy, only she didn't for the reason that she didn't think the others would appreciate having to swim for it because she'd made them capsize.

When they were nearer to the shore Trumpkin bounded out of the boat to anchor it onto the land. The rest of the older members of the group helped him by pulling the boat partially out of the water and onto the solid groundwork of the rocks. Since Lucy had no task to perform, she moved away from them and it was then that she noticed a bear near the shoreline.

"Hello there," she greeted the bear happily.

Everyone watched in mystification at the dynamic between the youngest of them and a rather outsized bear. Of course Buffy's confusion stemmed from the fact that she could not gather why anyone would talk to a bear, unlike the others who simply wondered why the bear didn't talk back.

Trumpkin was the only one who looked nervous, "Don't move Your Majesty."

His word of warning however came too late, within seconds the bear had charged Lucy and she had been forced to run away. Unfortunately or fortunately – depending on your thoughts – she ran back towards the remainder of the group.

Susan sprang into action, grabbing her bow and arrows and aiming them at the bear. "Stay away from her."

"Susan, shoot," Edmund yelled worried for Lucy's life.

Lucy was still running away from the bear as fast as she could go, but as she came within reach of them she fell down. With the bear rushing full speed towards her, there was nothing that she could do but scream in unadulterated terror.

As the bear reared up ready to attack he was hit with an arrow, but after the bear had crumpled to the ground dead and they looked around they saw that Susan's weapon had not been fired. It was in fact Buffy who had been the one to kill the bear with the Telmarine's bow and arrows she had found in the boat.

"How?" was all Peter asked.

She dropped the weapon, "I – uh – have no idea. Must have been, like the – uh – emergency of the situation. Some primal knowledge must've kicked in or something..."

Peter gazed at her with enormous scepticism and also gratefulness for saving Lucy's life. She turned away from him yet again and walked over to where the young girl was still on the ground, checking to see if she was injured or not.

"Why wouldn't he stop?" Susan asked feeling confused and guilty over the circumstances.

"I suspect that he was hungry," was Trumpkin's answer.

Buffy helped Lucy up and was surprised – to say the least – when she hugged her. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

The others rushed over to them, all silent but for Edmund. "He was wild."

"I don't think he could talk at all," Peter added.

"Talk?" Buffy asked. "Animals here can talk?"

Lucy still holding on to her saviour replied, "Yes."

Trumpkin poked the bear, "Get treated like you're a dumb animal long enough, that's what you become. You may find that Narnia is a more savage place than you remember."

"Everything changes," Peter muttered discontentedly.

Lucy cried out as Trumpkin started to cut up the bear. "Waste not, want not," he told her. "You'll be hungry later and thankful for this."

"I think I'm turning vegetarian," Buffy commented as she shielded Lucy from the rest of the dissection.

Walking, she detested walking and yet here they were doing it yet again. Buffy's solitary appeasement was that there was no more sand, only earth and it's numerous wide-ranging appearances and there was also the enormous tree roots – although she was still deciding which one was worse to walk on.

"I don't remember this way," Susan observed a ways into their journey.

"That's the problem with girls," Peter proclaimed smugly. "Can't carry a map in your heads."

The three girls glared at Peter's back and Lucy remarked, "That's because our heads have something in them."

"It's called a brain," Buffy added. "But of course Peter wouldn't know about that, because he doesn't have one."

Peter ignored Lucy and Buffy's taunts and continued on walking as he pretended that he could not hear Edmund's uninhibited laughter and Trumpkin's entertainment at his expense.

"I just wish he'd just have listened to the DLF in the first place," Susan said wistfully.

"DLF?" Edmund questioned from behind them.

Lucy giggled, "Dear little friend."

The girls smiled as they looked at each other and speedily followed the pathway Peter had taken, while Trumpkin and Edmund merely stood there.

"Well... that's not at all patronising, is it?" Trumpkin said grumpily as he and Edmund exchanged a look and Edmund walked off trying not laugh.

A few minutes later they all caught up to Peter who was standing in front of a dead end. "I'm not lost."

"No, you're just going the wrong way," their new friend told him.

"You last saw Caspian in the Shuddering Woods. The quickest way to there is to cross at the River Rush."

"But unless I'm mistaken, there is no crossing in these parts."

"That explains it then. You are mistaken."

As Peter and Trumpkin stood there in the shadows glaring at each other, Buffy just knew that this tremendously long day was about to get even longer. And it was all because a Human and a Dwarf were too insufferable to listen to each other.

They were still following Peter and his so-called map that he purportedly carried in his head when they out of the blue reached a gorge. They all stood on the edge looking down and observing the exceptionally long drop from the cliff-top to the river below.

"You see," Susan took great delight in informing Peter. "Over time water erodes the Earth's soil causing-"

"Shut up."

"Is there another way down?" Edmund asked Trumpkin.

"Yes... falling."

"Well, at least we weren't lost," Peter commented earning glares from all the others.

"There's a ford near Baruna," Trumpkin told them. "How do you feel about swimming?"

"Rather that than walking," Susan answered.

Buffy sighed, "Finally, someone who agrees with me."

They all started to follow Trumpkin off to the ford and the promise of no walking, when Lucy stopped and stared at something on the other side of the gorge.

"Aslan," she yelled. "It's Aslan, over there."

Everyone returned and stood next to Lucy, but could see nothing there. "Can't you see? He's right... there."

"Do you see him now?" Trumpkin asked her quietly.

"I'm not crazy. He was just there," she explained. "He wanted us to follow him."

"Lu, I'm sure that there is any number of lions in this wood. Just like that bear."

Lucy turned to Peter and practically snarled, "I think I know Aslan when I see him."

"Look, I'm not about to jump off of a cliff after someone who doesn't exist," Trumpkin stated his opinion.

"The last time I didn't believe Lucy, I ended up looking pretty stupid," Edmund said. "So, I believe you."

"If you believe it, I believe it," Buffy told her.

Peter looked at the group and then off into the distance. "Why wouldn't I have seen him?"

"Maybe you weren't looking?"

"Sorry, Lu," Peter said walking off with Susan and Trumpkin.

Lucy looked back across the expanse of the gorge sadly and then slowly she, Buffy and Edmund followed the others to the ford.

End Part

**Translations**:

What Qui Quae Que Quod (Latin)

Saw/See Animadverto (Latin)

Basically the title is suppose to say in Latin What Lucy Saw. Or as close I can get it.

**Lyrics**:

Rascal Flatts – It's Not Supposed to Go Like That


	6. The Meeting

**Chapter Five:The Meeting**

_/You always smile, but in your eyes your sorrow shows/_

When they reached the ford near Baruna, they found it to be not much more than a construction site. Telmarines were chopping down the surrounding trees to construct what was starting to look like a bridge over the River Rush.

That would not and could not be a good thing, allowing the Telmarine soldiers access to parts of Narnia that had been reasonably left alone for many years due to their superstitious beliefs and there could be only one motivation as to why this was taking place now – and it would seem to have something to do with a particular young Prince.

They were hidden from the Telmarine's sight by a felled tree and as they watched the scene before them, they could figure out no way around without being caught by the soldiers. With slight concern she looked over at Trumpkin and could see that he was astonished by the situation also and that he was anxious. Having friends and family in jeopardy was certainly not easy to deal with but she also knew that it could make a person choose the wrong option and end up in even deeper trouble.

"Perhaps this wasn't the best way to come, after all," Susan whispered aloud to no one in particular.

"We should've just listened to Lucy in the first place," Buffy muttered, following the others as they took off back the way they had arrived.

They were back at the gorge sooner than Buffy would've predicted, but once they were there no one had any real ideas about how to scale the chasm. Even she didn't, the gorge was too wide for her jump and they had no rope that they could latch on to anything on the other side. It just seemed as though they weren't meant to get across the darn gorge.

"So..." Peter said finally. "Where exactly do you **think** you saw Aslan?"

"I do wish you'd all stop trying to sound like grownups," Lucy told them crossly. "I don't **think**I saw him, I **did** see him."

"I am a grownup," Trumpkin replied looking decidedly uncomfortable.

"It was right over-"Lucy started but then disappeared from view, screaming.

"Lucy!" Susan yelled.

They all rushed over to the edge, frightened and apprehensive over what had just occurred only to find Lucy sitting on what appeared to be a path down the side of the gorge to the river and across. After a few minutes of the siblings hugging each other and checking that Lucy was not injured, they began their descent down the path that had provided for them.

Buffy was stunned by the path's condition, it was in comparatively good shape with only a few rough or slippery bits and so the group had little trouble reaching the bottom. When they arrived at the 

river, they were able to cross on some stepping stones that weaved their way along the section they were crossing.

Lucy slipped as she went across, but was helped out by her DLF and the others seemed to have no trouble what-so-ever. Then there was Buffy... The extra material at the bottom of her dress was a definite hindrance to her crossing, no matter how high she raised the hem, it still got wet and caused her no end of trouble. In the end Peter simply scooped her up into his arms and carried her, the rest of the way.

"Uh – thanks," she told him unnervingly.

"No problem," Peter replied still holding her close.

"You can put me down now."

Peter smiled at her and she tried not to notice how his blue eyes sparkled at her. "I guess I should do that then."

He put her gently down, but did not let her until he was certain that she was steady on her feet. The two of them looked at each other with embarrassment, neither knowing what to do or say to the other. Fortunately Lucy broke the silence and apprehension by hurrying them along to catch up to the others, which they willingly did.

Buffy had never been so thankful to see night fall, more often than not this signalled work to be done, but here in Narnia it meant it was time for rest. They had set up camp in a small clearing and now they could unwind and Buffy was intending to make the most of it - by sleeping.

Unfortunately it seemed that her mind had other ideas and was whirring with thoughts, memories and as standard visions of impending doom. It also really didn't help that she was sandwiched in between Lucy and Peter and had absolutely no personal space, or that Peter had been able to drift off the second he laid down.

She sat herself up and stared at the fire, wishing for sleep to come to her so that she could be not as much of a crabby Buffy in the morning. That was when she heard scuffling next to her and knew that Lucy was also awake.

"Buffy?"

"I didn't wake you, did I?"

"No," Lucy whispered back. "I can't sleep. Can't you sleep either?"

"There's just too much on my mind."

"With me, its excitement," Lucy told her. "I can hardly believe that I'm back here."

Silence reigned for a few minutes and Buffy thought that Lucy must have fallen asleep. That was until, "So... do you have a boyfriend?"

Buffy couldn't help but smile, "How will Susan feel if you interrogate me without her?"

"I'll fill her in later. So?"

"Sort of."

Lucy scoffed, "That is not an answer."

"Well, it's the best I've got right now."

"Do you love him?"

"As what?"

Lucy shook he head, "As in the forever and ever kind."

Buffy took her time formulating her reply, "As a friend, definitely. As in the forever and ever kind – I don't know. It's very complicated."

Lucy's interest was definitely peaked, as was someone else's - someone who had been pretending to sleep since he'd heard Buffy move about. Things got even more interesting for him a few moments later...

"So, Peter-"

"Lu... I don't think your brother and I would work-"

"Why not? You like each other - I can tell."

Buffy shook her head, her blonde hair falling out and down around her shoulders. "We literally come from two different worlds..."

"England and Americas aren't that far apart."

"It may be further than you think."

Lucy was as obstinate as her oldest brother, "I still think you're wrong."

"That's your choice, Lu," Buffy answered. "I'm gonna try to get some sleep. You should too."

"I will."

"Goodnight, Lu."

"Goodnight, Buffy."

She still could not sleep, but she lay there listening to the sounds of nature and the fire crackling near her head and contemplated about her talk with Lucy. It didn't seem like she had laid their long before she heard Lucy and Susan talking and she tried to block it out, but some of the conversation drifted through.

"I finally just got used to being in England."

"But... you are happy to be back, aren't you?"

"While it lasts."

Those were the words that sent Buffy off to sleep, because exhaustion had finally caught up with The Slayer. With her mind finally clear she drifted in a fitful sleep, one plagued with dreams of battle, death and blood.

It was scarcely light out when Buffy awoke the next morning and found that Peter was gazing at her, watching her sleep. She sat up feeling considerably vulnerable and wondering if she looked as horrendous as she felt.

"Peter-"

He cut her off as he stood up, held out his hand and asked softly, "Come for a walk with me?"

"This isn't a good idea," she answered as she took his hand and rose to her feet. "We should stay with the others."

"We won't go far," he assured her as he began to walk off, still holding onto her hand.

They walked a ways into the woods, making certain they knew which way would take them back to camp and the other members of their group. Both she and Peter were silent, just content to be in awe of the landscape and the peacefulness of the morning.

After a while Buffy spoke, breaking the spell of silence that had surrounded them. "Maybe we should be heading back now?"

"Just a few minutes more I want to show you something I found earlier."

"Earlier? Just how long have you been awake?" Buffy was truly horrified at just how much of a morning person he seemed to be.

"Only a few hours," he answered pulling her along.

After an additional minute or two they reached a clearing that had a view through the trees, permitting anyone who stood there to have a virtually unobstructed view of the surrounding forest. Buffy had to admit the view was breath-taking, but she was bewildered as to why he'd brought her there. She turned around and ran straight into his chest and found it a rather disturbing feeling being so much shorter than the person you were tripping over.

"Sorry," she said looking up at him.

Her eyes met his and it was all of a sudden like the world had gone into slow motion, all she could see was the unhurried descent of Peter's lips coming towards her own and for one short-lived moment she forgot all of the protests and motivations she had as to why this was a terrible idea. His lips had barely brushed her own when she heard a loud noise, roughly a cross between a roar and an animal in pain.

She pulled away from Peter, "What was that?"

"What was what?" Peter asked as it sounded again. This time he was not confused as he grabbed her hand and dragged her along, "Come on, hurry up."

They came upon a cluster of bushes and as they went to go around them they heard the noise once more and Peter peered over the top instead, just in time to see something pass the bushes by. "It's a minotaur," he whispered.

"They're real?" Buffy was slightly awed at the sight of what she had considered to be a mythical creature.

"And very unpleasant."

That was when they heard it, a small voice calling out, "Aslan?"

"That's Lucy," Buffy said needlessly.

"Stay here," Peter told her. "I'll go and get her."

Buffy watched as Peter snuck up behind his youngest sibling and put his hand over mouth before dragging her over to where Buffy was waiting for his return. He removed his hand, shushed her and pointed out the minotaur to her and Lucy gasped in astonishment, but still continued to ogle.

Peter unsheathed his blade, prepared to the battle the minotaur and protect the girls. He came out from their hiding place, intent on sneaking up on his adversary. Regrettably for him, he was the one who was ambushed – by a boy of a comparable age.

The resulting sword fight was quite equably matched, each of them meeting the other's thrusts. At one point Peter managed to extricate the boy from his sword – unluckily he then endeavoured to attack his adversary and got his blade wedged in a nearby tree. Abandoning it, while the other boy made an attempt to remove it, he grabbed a rock.

"No," Lucy yelled coming out of hiding. "Stop."

Buffy hurried over to Lucy and held her closely to her, as what Buffy alleged was a Narnian army seemingly came out of nowhere. Out of the corner of her eye she saw that the other boy was now holding Peter prisoner with his own sword.

"Prince Caspian?"

"Yes," the boy replied. "And you are?"

"Peter!" Susan yelled as she, Trumpkin and Edmund came into view.

With that name being said, Caspian looked down at the sword in his hand and saw the lions head and the ancient spells engraved on it. Realisation came to him, "High King Peter."

"I believe you called..."

"Well – yes," the young Prince nodded. "I thought you would be older."

"If you'd like," Peter said dropping the rock back onto the ground. "We could come back in a few years..."

"No," he said quickly, a little nervous that Peter meant his veiled threat. "No, that's all right. You're not exactly what I expected."

As Caspian spoke he looked at each of them, taking in their very youthful appearances. That was until he came to Susan and that was when Buffy noticed the look they gave each other – almost feeling the electricity floating between the two of them.

The spell was broken by Edmund, "Neither are you."

A badger came out of the pack, beginning to speak and Buffy tuned him out, she really didn't care about whatever he was talking about – unless it involved brutality and bloodshed. Now that they had found that Prince didn't it mean that at long last she could kick some butt?

She was distracted when a mouse came forward wearing a hart and carrying a sword. "We have anxiously awaited your return, my liege. Our hearts and swords are at your service."

"My gosh, he is **so** cute," Lucy said looking at the mouse.

"I agree," Buffy added, not looking at the mouse but at the Prince.

"Who said that?" the mouse demanded wielding his sword.

"Uh – sorry," Lucy replied sheepishly.

The mouse swordsman continued as if she had not spoken, "Your Majesty with the greatest respect, I do believe courageous, courteous or chivalrous might more benefit a knight of Narnia."

"Don't look at me I wasn't talking about the mouse," Buffy clarified much to Peter's dismay and Susan's quiet horror.

"Well, at least we know that some of you can handle a blade," Peter said taking his hurt out on Caspian.

Looking at the countenance of both obstinate royals, Buffy could tell that there was going to be trouble. The predicament was two exceptionally inflexible men and only one army to command.

"Yes indeed and I have recently put my blade to good use securing weapons for your armies, sire."

"Good," Peter nodded commandeering authority. "We're going to need every sword we can get."

"Well then, you'll probably be wanting yours back," Caspian replied, one-upping Peter.

Caspian handed the sword back to Peter and Peter sheathed it trying not to let Buffy's hushed sniggering get to him. Ten minutes previously she had been about to let him kiss her and now she was checking out the Prince and commenting on his looks. Now more than ever he was going to make certain that everyone knew who precisely was in charge, counting a specific blonde.

End Part

**Notes**:

Say hurray... no more Latin (too much trouble for something unnecessary. So now we will be having everything in English.

Also thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far.

**Lyrics**:

Mariah Carey – Without You


	7. The March

**Chapter Six – The March**

_/Cause sometimes that mountain you've been climbing  
is just a grain of sand/_

That evening as twilight fell over the clearing where the army had set up camp for the night, Buffy found herself walking away from the main group towards the reverberation of the river that she could hear in the vicinity. She just required some time away from her '**charges'**, as they had – for the most part – been driving her insane all day.

It started off not long after they had begun walking towards where Caspian said he and his followers had set up a headquarters, at most two days walk from where they were when the sword play had taken place. She was approached rather quietly by Susan, asking her about what her interest was in a certain good-looking Prince. She spent what seemed like forever convincing the High Queen that she had no fascination for Caspian other than him being their leader and commenting – succinctly – on his looks, guaranteeing Susan that he was not her type.

Peter was just about as badly behaved, when he wasn't staring angrily at or in disagreement with Caspian – in some sort of juvenile competition – he was staring at her. Hurt and betrayal flashing in his blue eyes whenever his eyes happened to accidently meet her own, making her tremendously uncomfortable and feeling a little guilt-ridden – for what for she wasn't quite sure.

Lucy had engaged her for the rest of the day, introducing her to the Narnians and forcing her to talk to Reepicheep and his men about their swordsmanship. There was also the actuality that she had not let her out of her sight for more than a minute, which of course caused some awkwardness when she had made an attempt to go to the bathroom earlier.

So far the only Pevensie who was not gradually deteriorating her mental capacity was Edmund and that was because he didn't seem to be concerned one way or another about her. He was mostly apprehensive – and accurately so – with what was going to happen next. Due to this he had spent the entire day walking with the Centaurs and discussing their perception on war and strategising with them.

She was more or less there when she realised just how to a great extent this walk had all ready done for her, allowing her to disentangle her mind and just chill out her spirit. At least until she remembered that she would in due course have to return to the camp and walk for at least another day – or longer if Peter and Caspian could not agree on the route to take again – to the army's headquarters.

Arriving at the water's edge she saw that somebody else had taken the same opportunity that she had and that the section of bank was already occupied by the young Prince. Not wanting to interrupt, what must be an infrequent peaceable moment for him, she went to walk away.

"Please..." he said without even opening his eyes. "You do not have to leave."

"I don't wanna put you out..."

"Unless you are the High King making a girly tone of voice... you are welcome."

Buffy moved in closer, but not too close as she did not want to start the elder two Pevensies off again. "Is Peter driving you nutty, too?"

Caspian opened his eyes and looked at his fellow traveller for the first time, "He is continuously countermanding my decisions. Making me feel as though I am insignificant and in no way ready to be a King. Maybe he is right? What knowledge do I have?"

"First off all never say that again-"

"Say what?"

"That Peter is right," she told him. "What privileges and experience does he have to tell you these things?"

"He was High King for many years."

"And before that?"

Caspian shook his head, "I do not think that he had much - Just the battle against the White Witch."

"So... essentially when you become King, you will have a similar encounter as he did. Therefore the same amount of experience..."

"I suppose you are correct," he replied frowning. Suddenly he stood up and said, "I bid you-"

Buffy could perceive the sound of the whir of displaced air the instant it started. As it came within reach of them her slayer reflexes kicked in, her right hand flew upwards and caught the arrow before it could get anywhere near its premeditated target, the Prince. From the direction of the camp, she could hear a quantity of the Centaurs give chase after the shooter and breathed a sigh of reprieve.

"Y-you saved my life," he whispered staring at her. "How did you do that?"

"Would you believe I have good reflexes?"

"No."

"A lucky catch?"

"No."

"Confession time?"

"I think that would be the wisest course of action."

Buffy sat down by the water and Caspian immediately followed suit. "Where do I even start off?"

He smiled at her hesitantly, "I find the beginning is always best."

She sighed, "Well... it started off with a feeling..."

When it was all over she had to acknowledge that she felt a lot healthier after telling Caspian who she in actuality was. He had promised to keep her secret, but had unsurprisingly advocated to her that she unburden her heart to the others before something caused them to ascertain it on their own, but she could not bring herself to do so – too many years of being a hidden warrior.

Besides she was in a way getting to for the time being, live out a trivial flight of the imagination she'd had since she had been called as the Slayer - she was getting to be a ordinary girl again. Although she now had to acknowledge that it wasn't precisely the way she remembered it and most times she really just wanted to overlook the normal crap and use her super powers – she was much more contented that way.

After they had finished talking, Caspian had returned to the camp, but Buffy had remained seated by the river, just watching it ebb and flow. Taking pleasure in the tranquillity and stillness, she just let herself loosen up and wish that she could just spend the night out there alone, but she couldn't not without them sending out a search party for her.

A branch snapped in close proximity, but she wasn't concerned, she could all ready tell it was Peter and she looked up in his direction as he came close to her. She sighed as he sat down next to her and wondered why he was out there with her.

"We need to talk," he said without warning.

She raised her eyebrows at him, "We do?"

"You know..." he began. "You can't just kiss-"

"Point of order, Pevensie – technically we didn't kiss."

"Me," he continued on taking no notice of her observation. "And then all of a sudden disregard me to chase after **him**."

Buffy couldn't disguise her smirk at his preposterous declaration. "Chasing after Caspian? Don't be so brainless."

"You said **very** loudly that you thought he was cute."

"So what? I think lots of guys are cute, but I don't date them all. Sometimes it just straightforward admiration..."

"But you and he were here... **together**."

"Talking."

"Talking?"

"You know, you open your mouth and sounds come out. Kinda like what we are doing now..."

Peter smiled, "So just talking?"

"What have I just been saying?" she yelled frustrated as hell at him. "Why am I even explaining it to you?"

She went to stand up and march off in righteous anger, but instead he pulled her back down and she unexpectedly found herself more or less in his lap, his lips fusing with her own. Her brain went blank, gone was her irritation, her thoughts of home and the people there – in fact all she could do was feel him against her and the sensation of his lips on hers.

"Why did you..." she asked when they ultimately broke apart.

"Not so technical anymore, is it?" he replied. "Besides I think you know by now that I care about you."

She stood up and moved out of his reach, turning her back on him. "You don't know me, Peter. And if you did, I don't think you'd like me."

He got up and came up behind her, putting his hands on her shoulders. "I can't imagine that anything would make me change my feelings towards you."

She pulled away, "When the time comes... I hope you remember that."

Buffy walked away back towards the camp as swiftly as she dared go, refusing to accept the temptation to look back at him or to speculate what might be going through his head. What she planned to do was to stay away from him and his family for a couple of days so that once again they could all see reason and start to behave rationally once again.

For the remainder of the evening she stayed away from the Pevensies the best that she could, but between Lucy's spur-of-the-moment hugging bouts and Peter's vigilant eyes, she could not truthfully escape them. She was getting more exasperated by the second and knew that if she did not find something to do soon, they would invite her over to sit with them and she would have no excuse not to.

That was when she spotted the gathering of Minotaurs that sat by a fire, steering clear of mixing with the other races of Narnians. Inquisitiveness got the better of her and she went over to them and sat down, without waiting for an invite. They simply ignored her attendance and when she asked them any questions, but she wasn't about to go away – as she had been told on more than one occasion she was reasonably imaginative.

She poked the closest one to her and asked him if he was any good in battle, when she elicited no more than a grunt in reaction she hit his arm and continued to do such until he answered her. It set the tone for the next hour or so until they all realised the irritating 'Daughter of Eve' was not about to leave them in silence, that was when they answered her questions with the bare minimum of response.

Not dissuaded she wheedled and provoked until she had them going in what some would consider enthusiastic conversation for the race. Once they had semi-accepted her and regaled her stories of battles fought and won over many generations, they asked her if she had any to tell – to some extent over-confident that the slip of a girl would have nothing to contribute.

To say the least she stunned the strongly built Minotaurs, never in their wildest imaginations could they have speculated that she – a human so delicate in stature - knew such things. Some of them would say that she was making it all up, but the battle fatigued of the group knew that only 

someone who have lived through and experienced those things could so truthfully portray them. Their dialogue went on and all participants were ignorant that someone else was listening with enthusiastic interest, in particular to the things concerning Buffy.

The Pevensie children were at a fire of their own, even though not all of them were conscious. Edmund and Peter had relatively effortlessly fallen into a deep sleep, leaving Susan and Lucy to entertain the Prince; which they had done until he too had decided that he needed to have a rest – much to Susan's disappointment. So when Trumpkin in due course returned from wherever he had been, the two girls were more than pleased to see him.

The dwarf had not been sat down for more than a minute before he started to grumble. "She's a strange one, she is."

"Who?" Lucy asked her DLF confused.

Trumpkin sulked, "That girl."

"Buffy?" Susan suggested speculating what the blonde had done to increase the dwarf's indignation – yet again.

"Why do you think she's strange?" Lucy asked him inquisitively. "I think she's great."

Trumpkin just looked affronted, "First she wanted to kill me..."

"She said it was a joke," Susan reminded him.

"Then she shot the arrow at the bear – flawlessly."

Lucy joined in, "And saved my life."

"Now she's over there with the Minotaurs. Talking about people she's beheaded and other ways she's killed," Trumpkin finished.

"Are you sure that is what you heard?" Susan questioned with scepticism unmistakable in her voice.

"My hearing is perfect."

Lucy just shook her head at him, "I think you got it wrong..."

Dismayed by their disbelief, Trumpkin merely lay down and closed his eyes, preferring to pretend to sleep than listen to the girls tell him he was being preposterous. He knew what he had heard and one way or another he was going to make sure that **she** did not have a chance to hurt the Kings and Queens.

Lucy and Susan kept on chatting unacquainted that once again Peter was eavesdropping instead of sleeping. He was struck by what Trumpkin had been telling the girls about Buffy, it in point of fact made more sense to him than some of the things that had been coming out her in the way of rationalizations. _'You don't know me, Peter. And if you did, I don't think you'd like me,'_ those words she had thrown at him earlier reverberated through his head, keeping him from going 

back to sleep. So he lay there wondering just what her secret was and how he was going to uncover it.

End Part

**Lyrics**:

Carrie Underwood – So Small

**Author's Note:**

Thanks to all the reviewers. Sorry if I haven't got back to you, but I have a backlog of work and emails to get through and I chose to get this part out before doing it – What can I say I am a Procrastinator...


	8. What Happens in the Woods

**Chapter Seven – What Happens in the Woods, Doesn't Always Stay in the Woods**

_/Even as a young girl  
I was not the bashful type/_

From the time when the new day had dawned things with the significantly sized group seemed to be running efficiently. They were making advantageous time on their trek to Caspian's base camp and astonishingly - for once – Caspian was the one in reality leading the group, with no intervention from a particular domineering High King of old.

Buffy was walking – thanks to Reepicheep's sword and some artistic cutting of her hemline – by herself and enjoying the solitude that went along with it. None of the Pevensies had endeavoured to join or invite her anywhere and even Peter had stopped looking at her – which, to her disappointment, was in point of fact causing more agitation than calmness.

She was on the other hand shocked when a Centaur came within reach of her, it was the one she had noticed often speaking to the Prince – Glenstorm. He did not speak to her at the outset, merely choosing to walk beside her in a contented silence.

"The stars tell me that you are a distinguished warrior who has travelled far to come to the aid of our Kings and Queens."

Buffy said incredulously, "Do they now?"

"I would not have believed it from any other resource. You do not look like a warrior, of this world or any other. However the stars are not sufficiently expert at telling falsehoods."

"You know... the last person I met that that talked to the stars, was insane."

He expressed his amusement, not at all affronted by her comment. "I am not insane; my people are simply connected to the world and the things above it and can therefore comprehend – when they choose it to be so - what their messages are."

"If they're being so convenient with their messages – do they say whether or not we're gonna win?"

"Regrettably they are not that specific," he told her. "They do however say that you will be subjected to a significant hardship before the battle truthfully can begin and that you must triumph over it for us to stand a genuine chance at victory."

"Oh joy!"

&

By the time that the respite for the midday meal had been organized, Buffy had driven herself crazy trying to figure out what in hell that Centaur had been talking about. Because to her it had the disastrous ring of prophecy about it and she detested prophecies with a passion.

It was times like these that she wholeheartedly yearned for the Scoobies. If she were at home right now Giles would be leafing through his numerous books, Willow checking the internet and Xander... well, he would be doing his best to distract her with his overworked clowning around and jokes.

Out of those straightforward thoughts, melancholy out of the blue beleaguered her and all of the feelings that she had been repressing over the past few days effervesced to the surface. She closed her eyes and attempted a crude form of the meditation that Giles had been trying to teach her all year, in a unsuccessful effort to stop the tears from falling.

Since she had not been completely triumphant she was thankful that she had chosen to sit unaccompanied. She never noticed that Reepicheep was approaching with his meal and an suggestion to keep her company or neither did she notice him scamper off to get someone more knowledgeable in matters such as these to console her.

Within minutes she was surrounded by the Pevensie girls. Without words the two of them just reached out and hugged her in an attempt to offer reassurance without interfering. Although the sentiment was appreciated, it was in reality making her a little more than uncomfortable.

As soon as she was physically able she put distance between them all. "Thanks – uh – I don't know what came over me."

"It's okay," Susan replied perceptively. "We went through the same thing the last time we were here. You miss your family and friends, right?"

"Pretty much."

"Don't worry," Lucy added. "You'll see them again."

&

Hours later she had recovered to some extent from her attack of girlishness, but was more than slightly humiliated that it had transpired and that it had been witnessed. Apart from when she was in horrendous pain, she hadn't really cried in years – she hadn't even cried when Angel had left to go get rid of The Judge's arm – and to break down now when she needed to be on top of her game was inappropriate.

At least one decent thing had came to pass that day, Prince Caspian had announced – much to everyone's relief – that they were approaching his headquarters and should reach it long before night fell. So at least she was not going to be camping out in the spine-chilling forest yet again, although she supposed the other lodgings could be worse.

As they continued their stride through the woods, the forest grew denser – unmanageable brush and overgrown trees – and melded together to form a virtually impenetrable wall around the group. A feeling of trepidation began to coil in Buffy's stomach, the same one that more often than not resulted in catastrophe for her.

Part of her wanted to accept as true that she was just being paranoid and that nothing was going to come to pass, after all her senses had been a bit off since arriving in Narnia – how else could she rationalize the Peter incident. And even if she wasn't mistaken, how could she explain to everyone that there was going to be an attack.

She was confident that Caspian would believe her, him being the only one privy to her secret, but there was still a complete army to persuade. She was still pondering with herself over her predicament when her slayer hearing picked up the sounds of horses, but she was unsure whether or not it was real or she was imagining it. Looking over at her new Minotaur friends, she saw that they were also on guard and that was when she realised that they were all in a lot of trouble.

&

She made up her mind swiftly after that; it wasn't reasonable not to forewarn the others, in particular since the Minotaurs didn't seem inclined to share the information. Buffy rushed towards the midpoint of the group to where Caspian was talking to Reepicheep and some of the other animals and pulled him aside not caring about his conversation.

"That was rude," he said before she could even open her mouth. "Could you have not waited?"

"No," she replied attempting to once again catch her breath. "Something is wrong."

Caspian looked at her, "What do you mean?"

"Can't you feel it? Something is about to attack!"

"Do not be ridiculous... we are absolutely safe."

She shook her head at him, "If you don't believe me... and you should. Take a look around at the others. Watch what the Minotaurs are doing."

Caspian humoured her, even though he thought she was wide of the mark. What he saw rapidly changed his estimation of her insight and her senses. The Minotaurs, who more often than not segregated themselves to a great extent, were weaving their way through the group, spreading out in some sort of formation and had unsheathed their weapons.

"I will notify the others," he told her starting to walk away. At the last moment he turned back, "Thank you and I am sorry. Next time I shall trust you."

"Don't worry about it. Just make sure everyone knows what's going on."

She watched him walk away and whisper something to the ones he had been conversing with before her interruption. Satisfied that she had done her duty of informing someone of the imminent trouble, she turned her consideration to her next task – finding herself a weapon – since there was no way she was going to actively stay out of the first chance she'd had to kick some butt since arriving.

Surveying the multitude, she caught sight of Asterius, the first Minotaur she had forced to make friends with her and headed towards his location. As she moved next to him, without word he handed her his second weapon, a large knife – not as functional as the swords the others had, but still better than being unarmed - and smiling at him she appreciatively accepted the privilege that he had bestowed upon her.

Buffy was examining her plaything when Peter came up behind her and grabbed her arm. "Come on, we need to get you to safety."

"Excuse me?"

Peter did not let go or stop dragging her and as tempted as she was to thump him, she maintained her composed facade, only just. "Look, you need to stay with the girls. I can't have you running around and getting wounded. You have no idea of how terrible battle can be." She was unexpectedly thrust at Susan and Lucy as he departed with a simple, "Keep her safe," to Susan.

"Did you hear?" Lucy asked her.

"Yes..."

"Don't worry," Susan told her, mistaking her stillness for apprehension over a certain High King. "Peter will be fine."

"What a pity," Buffy muttered; glowering in the direction he had stalked off in. "So why aren't we allowed to fight?"

"Su's the only one with a weapon and even she gets pushed aside when Peter's in charge," Lucy replied. "He's just trying to keep us safe."

&

The assault came just as was anticipated, though there were not as many Telmarine soldiers and the Narnians without doubt outnumbered them by quite a few. Even though they had the numbers advantage they had divided leadership once again, with Peter and Caspian both barking orders that countermanded each other and as a result allowed several of the enemy to penetrate the middle of the group and end up – coincidently – close to the girls.

Using her bow, Susan took out quite a few as they approached but one lone soldier came up from behind and in a spineless move went after Lucy. Buffy swerved around and kicked him clear across the vicinity into the middle of a fight between a Telmarine and a Centaur, flabbergasting Lucy. Without hesitation she threw the knife at an oncoming soldier, hitting him in the centre of his left eye and knocking him down to the ground, where he becoming weak with suffering while warfare raged on around him.

Adrenaline flooding through her veins, Buffy gave up all pretence of ordinariness and just let her slayer side take over. After having been repressed since she had met up with the Pevensie children, she had more than a sufficient amount of staying power to carry her through the bloodshed, as well as cause a reasonable quantity of her own.

Kicking, punching and a hotchpotch of martial arts moves that had been drummed into her over the years flooded to the surface. Within moments she had snatched the sword of the fallen Telmarine and was using it on his companions, with a grace that denoted her expertise with the weapon. She had just run through the last soldier with her captured sword when she looked up and found herself under the intense scrutiny of her fellow travellers.

"Uh – I can explain," she said dropping the sword and facing them.

When her eyes met Peter's, she froze, gone was the hazy look of attraction, replaced with a ferocity that could rival the most vicious of demons. "We're waiting," he replied his voice as frosty as the expression in his cool blue eyes.

&

End Part

&

**Lyrics:**

Kristy Lee Akers – I'm Little But I'm Loud

**Notes:**

Sorry it took so long, but I rewrote the darn thing like six times and I am still a little unsatisfied. That is always a problem with me; imagine it perfectly and expressly not so.

Also thank you to everyone who took time to read and review. H


	9. Confession Is Good For The What?

**Chapter 8: Confession Is Good For The What?**

_/I'm no different,  
I am just the same/_

Buffy was used to being to some extent an phenomenon; after all when you are a teenage girl with superpowers you don't have much of a option in the matter. However now she was just feeling abnormal – different – and even though she was, it was not a pleasant sensation. After explaining who she in reality was – and mentally apologising to Giles for breaking cover, yet again – and where she had come from, several of them were avoiding her, numerous were staring at her and one person in particular was still glaring at her with his set of cold blue eyes.

Not that she actually could condemn him, she had unquestionably not helped the circumstances when it came right down to it and to him. The most unpleasant part of it all was that she had no understanding of why she cared about his disposition or what he thought of her - she just did and it was driving her crazy. She just kept going over and over what she had said to him and each time she got embarrassed by her words, even though she did feel that he deserved them a little.

"_I was sent here to protect __**you**__ and your siblings," Buffy shouted at the irate young man in front of her. Neither of the combatants noticed that most of the once large crowd had dissipated, unwilling and unwanting to get involved in this dispute, instead choosing to tend the wounded. _

"_Who would send __**you**__ - a schoolgirl – here to safeguard anyone?"_

_Buffy took immense gratification in delivering her line, "Your beloved Aslan."_

_Peter looked as though she had struck him at the thought that the great lion had not trusted him enough to keep his siblings from harm. "Aslan would never do that. He knows that I am capable taking care of myself… and the others."_

"_And naturally this is all about __**you**__, isn't it?"_

"_Aslan probably told you Caspian and you are just…"_

"_Nope, Caspian was never mentioned. Face it, your precious Aslan has more faith in __**him**__ than in __**you**__," Buffy had the last word before walking away, feeling his spiteful glare boring into her back as she retreated._

She sighed at the repeating thoughts and kept on walking, following the group at an unobtrusive distance, disinclined to cause any additional distress than she previously had. So caught up in her own wretchedness, she had failed to observe that she was no longer alone.

"I'm sorry," came a voice, breaking her from her disheartening thoughts.

She looked down and saw Trumpkin walking next to her, "For what?"

"I didn't like you, not sure if I do now or not," he told her brusquely. "I set out to shatter your bond with the Kings and Queens of Old. I figured you were dangerous to them."

"Well… congratulations."

"I am sorry I outed you."

"Don't worry about it! It would have come out eventually; you can only suppress your true nature for so long."

"I am also sorry for – uh – maybe…"

"Being a little monster?" she offered helpfully.

"There is no need to be rude."

They walked in silence for a few more minutes, before Buffy spoke. "If it helps… I'm sorry too."

"You are referring to wanting to kill me, right?"

"What else?"

Trumpkin laughed and Buffy allowed herself to be distracted by her new found friend. "So, Buffy… what exactly is a vampire?"

It was mid-afternoon when they at long last broke through the trees and left the shadows and protection of the forest. They found themselves standing in an open expanse, staring at an extraordinary construction in the distance. As a group they moved towards it and once they had reached the entrance, the Centaurs lined up along the path inside and raised their swords up high.

The Pevensie children went on ahead and as Caspian went to follow with the others, he noticed that Buffy did not. "Are you not coming?"

"I think I'm going to – uh – check around the outside," she replied as the others paraded past her. At Caspian's incredulous look, she rephrased her last statement, "I think everyone else would be more comfortable if I checked around outside."

"They will get over it."

"I'm simply putting a little space between me and them. I'll come inside soon." When he made no move to leave her company, she said to him, "If you don't hurry inside, Mr. I-am-the-High-King will take over…"

With that one inconsequential observation, Caspian just about ran inside his headquarters ready to wrestle off the takeover that his imagination – or then again maybe not – had Peter planning. With a sigh, Buffy went off by herself to double check the security precautions and rummage around for any exploitable weaknesses in the structure.

When she ultimately entered - what the Fauns on guard duty had referred to as Aslan's How - a few hours later, she was astonished to find that Caspian had done an outstanding job in setting up his base of operations. She could see a cluster of Narnians, some that had been in the woods earlier and others that were fresh faces, crafting weapons, but she did not see anyone that she knew.

Coming around a corner she thought that she heard Caspian's voice up ahead and as she walked towards the sound, she realised that he was not unaccompanied. That Peter – unbelievably – was with him and they were not killing each other. She was very nearly to them when their conversation caught her awareness and she flushed with mortification as she realised it was she that they were speaking about.

"Vampires? The future? She is obviously delusional," Peter's incensed voice echoed at full volume.

"I believe her."

"You would," Peter scoffed.

"It is especially sad," Caspian answered. "You who love her doubts and I who scarcely know her believes."

Uncomfortable Buffy headed like greased lightning back down the passageway, the way she came and then headed in the opposed direction in search of Asterius and the other Minotaurs. This was to push the eavesdropped discussion from her mind and to put herself in a more conventional position, talking about death and destruction.

As night fell, one of the sentry's came hurrying inside with news. He told his account over and over as he attempted to get close enough to either the Prince or one of the other Royals to give them the information. In due course he did get to Peter and when he heard what was going on, he and - to some extent - Caspian called a meeting of the generals to be held in the stone table room.

Buffy was only attending the meeting because Caspian had asked her to be present at it, even though she was not convinced why he had done so. Slipping into the back of the room once it had already started, she leaned up against one of the stone walls and stayed back as the others discuss what was going on and what they were planning to do about it.

She was not in the slightest take by surprise when Peter knocked Caspian out of the way to take the lead. It reminded her of precisely how she had acted when Kendra had first arrived in Sunnydale and the two of them had competed for Giles' consideration and affection, before they had come to realise they needed to work together or they were all condemned.

"It is only a matter of time. Miraz's men and war machines are on their way. That means those same men are not protecting his castle," Peter stood in the middle of the room proclaiming.

"What do you propose we do, Sire?" Reepicheep asked with an almost sickening devotion.

As she had expected, both Caspian and Peter stepped forward with their opinions and strategy. It was truthfully nearly comical the way that they both spoke at the same time. "We…" Caspian began as Peter uttered, "Our…"

She watched in an amalgamation of dissatisfaction and repulsion as the two men locked gazes, only to have Peter intimidate the Prince. "Our only hope is to strike them before they strike us."

Caspian looked horrified at Peter's suggestion, "But that is crazy. No one has ever taken that castle."

"There is always a first time."

"We'd have the element of surprise," Trumpkin added.

"But we have the advantage here," Caspian pointed out.

Buffy almost broke out laughing at the look on Peter's face as his sister; Susan stepped forward to defend Caspian's idea. "If we dig in, we could probably hold out indefinitely."

Peter glared at Caspian, "Look, I appreciate what you have done, but this not a fortress, it is a tomb!"

Edmund stepped up to side with his brother, "Yes, and if the Telmarine's are smart, they will just starve us out."

A squirrel next to Reepicheep piped up, "We could collect nuts!"

Reepicheep glared at the offensive animal, "Oh yes and throw them at the Telmarines... Shut up!" He then turned back to Peter, "I think you know where I stand on this, Sire."

Peter strode over to Glenstorm, "If I can get your troops in, can you handle the guards."

"Or die trying, my liege," was the stoic response.

"That is what I'm worried about," Lucy said from her seat on the stone table.

"Sorry?"

"Well, you're acting like there are only two choices: Dying here or dying there."

Peter practically patted her on the head, "I'm not sure you have really been listening, Lu."

"No, you're not listening. Or have you forgotten who really defeated the White Witch, Peter?"

Peter looked thunderous, "I think we have waited for Aslan long enough."

"Wait," Caspian said turning surprisingly towards her and giving her the reason why he had invited her there. "Buffy, what do you think?"

She was disconcerted by the turn of events, as she found all eyes on herself once more that day – including Peter's infuriated ones. "You want **my** opinion?"

"Yes," Caspian established, upholding his guarantee to believe her in future.

"Why not?" Peter added his voice dripping with frost and ridicule.

"Okay… I think you're equally wrong," she said. Turning towards Peter, "You should listen when someone who has lived in a place his whole life tells you that it is crazy to try and take control of it." And before Caspian could gloat she started on him, "And you… digging in might work for a while, but Edmund is right they would starve us out. You should both be listening to Lucy, there is always another choice and that one might not lead to death and blood."

"So, your suggestion is?" Caspian asked.

Meeting Peter's icy blue glare with a furious green one of her own, "The woods."

"The woods?"

"The Narnians have successfully hidden in the woods for how long? The better part of thirteen hundred years. No one ever saw them; it was like they were invisible. We could use that advantage to make a pre-emptive strike against Miraz's men. They would never see us coming."

"That is the most ludicrous thing I've heard," Peter told her. "My plan is the only one that makes tactical sense and we're using it."

"Well then…" Buffy told him with conviction. "When it fails, we will all know who was to blame, won't we?"

Most of the others – Narnians, Telmarine Princes and such – had left the room and Buffy was pondering whether or not to follow or to stay put and keep out of the way until she was needed. She felt that she 

might have been a little too antagonistic – not infrequent when dealing with Peter that day – when she had told him that if the plan failed it would be his fault. But he had royally pissed her off again, if you added that to the fact that she was still angry over earlier, it just led to a thoroughly pissed off slayer.

She was more than a little astounded when she turned around and found Lucy and Susan standing there, both with hesitant smiles on their faces. Buffy returned the smiles speculatively, as she wondered why they were there and what they wanted from her.

"Thank you," Lucy said. "For backing me up now… and for saving me earlier."

"Lu, you didn't have to thank me."

"I wanted too."

Susan also spoke, "I wanted to apologise to you for earlier. It might have been a shock, but I should have listened to you instead of judging."

"And I should have told you all the truth earlier," Buffy admitted. "It was just kind of nice to be normal for once."

"Well… I doubt we would have believed you anyway," Lucy told her, flushing pink.

The three of them stood there staring at each other for a moment, before Susan spoke once more. "So… vampires?"

"You're kidding me? You are Queen of a magical world and you're giving me attitude?"

They all doubles up laughing at that and the three of them left the stone table room together, to find out what was going on with the others and the positions that they had been allocated to play in Peter's **great** plan to storm Miraz's fortified castle.

End Part

**Lyrics**:

Vanessa Amorossi – Absolutely Everybody

**Notes**:

Flashback


	10. Peter's Great Plan

**Chapter 9: Peter's Great Plan**

_/'Cause I'll fall on my face  
in a state of disgrace/_

The grouping that Peter had hand picked for his singular incursion upon Miraz's castle – including a unenthusiastically incorporated edition in Buffy – stood and stared at the Telmarine stronghold. It was grey stone monstrosity that dominated the surrounding landscape, letting the world know the occupants were once and still was at heart conquerors.

Even though Caspian had made an effort to insist that Buffy be included in the group charged with infiltrating the castle, Peter had unwaveringly refused – leaving her both relieved and frustrated. Relieved because if they had been on a team together, she and Peter would have either slaughtered each other or gotten them all caught. She was frustrated because he was of course insinuating that she was not worthy enough to be his back-up.

However at least she had been placed in a squad with Asterius and a different exasperating dwarf – even though she had to some extent warmed to Trumpkin since his apology – called Nikabrik, so she was able and willing to make the most of her skilfulness. They were doing their allocated assignment – checking for guards outside of the castle before the army was to arrive – when they spotted a soldier just he spotted them. The Telmarine drew his sword, as Asterius put his finger to his lips.

"Shhh…"

Buffy genuinely wished she could have afforded to snigger at the remarkably bewildered expression on the poor soldier's face as he looked at her and the Minotaur, not realising that Nikabrik was coming up behind him. Fortunately the dwarf battered the ill-fated sentry over the head, sending him into a deep and unflustered slumber.

They checked the remainder of their designated region, not meeting up with any more Telmarines. Once they were convinced that the area was secure, they headed back to where the rest of the army was waiting, to look forward to the signal from Edmund to commence the assault.

They had each and every one been stood there for what seemed like an eternity when unexpectedly a brightness appeared in the sky. However it was not the indicator that both Peter and Caspian had told them to watch out for. It was flashing on and off and pointed upwards at the night sky instead of pointed in their direction.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Nikabrik grumbled next to her.

"Something's wrong," Buffy whispered to herself, feeling an impending sense of doom settle into her bones.

Asterius placed a hand onto her shoulder and nodded that he had heard her and that he comprehended. It was then that she heard the grumbles of dread and hesitation from the Narnians standing behind her and she took charge. She turned around and faced them before saying, "I am positive that it is simply a few unanticipated diffculties. King Peter and Prince Caspian will be ready on schedule."

"Do you really believe that?" Nikabrik asked her when she had returned to join him and Asterius.

"No," she told him with conviction. "But it is not essential that I do… only that they do."

In due course the signal that they had all been waiting for exploded through the darkness. Glenstorm, the sanctioned leader of the diverse army, gave a holler and them all – Buffy included – charged the castle. Buffy watched as her comrade Asterius left behind her and Nikabrik and moved to the front of the pack, smashing his way through the first gate using his formidable horns, allowing them all to keep up their pace and not be forced to slow down.

Weapons were drawn they crossed the threshold into a stone courtyard and started to combat the Telmarine soldiers who were waiting for them. From somewhere behind her she heard Peter bellow, "_For Narnia_," but she did not let it or concern for her friends get in the way of her battle concentration.

Using the sword that she had been given – one stolen from the Telmarine's at some stage in the weapons raid at the bridge – she fought with all of her slayer might and capability. Adrenaline propelled through her veins, augmenting her slayer strength and causing her to strike in the blink of an eye and with additional power behind each blow.

Out of the corner of her eye, Buffy observed a Telmarine soldier with a crossbow in hand take aim at Peter. Without thinking she took hold of a dagger from its sheath on her present opponent's strap and tossed it at the would-be archer, hitting him in his uncovered neck just before Edmund could come to the rescue.

As the conflict continued more and more soldiers arrived both up the top of the castle and in the courtyard, providing evidence beyond any uncertainty that they had dangerously miscalculated the number of soldiers that Miraz had at his disposal. This gave rise to the undesirable thought that if they had been incorrect about this, had they also underestimated the potential size of the army that was preparing to attack the How.

From out of nowhere she heard a voice exclaim, "_Get that gate closed_," and she watched in dismay as it began to come down and Asterius broke away from the struggle to hold the gate open for them. Mystification reigned over the next couple of minutes as Peter gave the order to withdraw and Buffy kept on fighting in order to give some of the lingering Narnians an opportunity to escape.

Without word of warning Buffy found herself wrenched through the air and onto a horse behind Peter. They passed through the gate only seconds before Asterius, exhausted from the encounter and holding the cumbersome gate open, as well as the blood loss from his numerous wounds, collapsed and the gate slammed shut.

Peter turned around to glimpse at the scene behind him and as Buffy endeavoured to snuffle back the tears for her friend she realised there was still countless Narnians that had been trapped inside. To her unadulterated repulsion she saw the Telmarines shoot their arrows into the enduring trapped Narnians, killing them one by one.

From the movement of the drawbridge underneath them and the shouts of the others, Peter rode away from the bloodshed towards what was left of his army and his siblings. She would have thought him detached and hard-hearted over this action, but she had heard him struggle for breath with disgust and choke back his own tears over his fallen comrades.

Once the remaining group had made it back into the woods they stopped, seizing a few minutes to express grief over their fallen friends and other loved ones. The precise second Peter stopped his horse; Buffy jumped down and sank to her knees sobbing. Peter unhurriedly climbed down and approached her, inside of moments – and much to the amazement of the others – he sat down next to her and pulled her into an embrace.

"I'm sorry about Asterius," he whispered to her sympathetically. "He was a courageous soldier."

"And my friend," she sobbed back.

"It was what he would have sought after, his death meant something. He saved countless numbers of us."

"I know," Buffy answered her weeping slowing down a little. "I also know it's selfish, but it's been so long since I lost someone… I'd just about forgotten how much it hurts."

Peter did not speak in response to her declaration, instead he simply held her close to him until her tears at long last stopped. When she pulled away from him, she looked into his blue eyes, which still held the spark of anger – only now it was subjugated by sorrowfulness, compassion and something she did not wish to distinguish.

"Thank you," she told him before she stood up and moved over to the group of mourning Minotaurs.

"Come on," Peter said suddenly re-adopting his High King persona. "We need to get back to the How."

Unenthusiastically the group started to move once again towards their base camp, each of them speculating about how they were going to tell the ones that had been left behind what had taken place and how they were going to be capable of offering comfort and reassurance, when they could find little or none themselves.

Everybody at a snail's pace marched along, no one was even bothering to ride on the horses – they were just being led along by their reigns – when Edmund landed and rejoined the group. Buffy was only just at the rear Edmund, walking with Susan and Caspian, when Peter hurried over to check on his brother.

"I'm fine, Pete," Edmund told him. "Stop fussing."

"I know… and thanks for the save back there."

"Peter, what are you talking about?"

"The archer…"

Edmund nodded as he remembered, "That wasn't me."

"But I saw you there as he fell."

"I was trying to get there, but Buffy got to him first. Threw a knife at him… it was rather spectacular."

Peter turned his head to look at her and she smiled hesitantly at him before he turned away once more. That was when she noticed that Caspian was staring at her. "What?"

"Why did you save him? He is impossible."

"It's my job," she whispered back.

"That is not a good job to have," Caspian added as Susan elbowed him in the stomach.

While the discussion was going on, Peter had turned around once more to thank Buffy for her help and instead saw Caspian lean down and whisper something to her. All the self recriminations he had been having over the battle manifested in another and less positive way – all in Caspian's direction. Peter's resentment and aggravation had a new target and he could almost not wait to get a chance to express it.

End Part

**Lyrics**:

Katie Armiger – Insanity

Notes:

Thanks for the reviews. I will respond to them in time, I promise. I am not procrastinating at the moment. There was a death in the family and I have been a little distracted.


	11. Temper Tantrums and Talks

**Chapter Ten: Temper Tantrums and Talks**

_/We're only human, baby  
we walk on broken ground/_

By the time they had the How at long last in their line of sight, the group's communal mourning had become irritation and dissatisfaction, with everyone's tempers going beyond the fraying point. Old enemies in the midst of the Narnians had begun to criticize at one another again. The chief offenders of this were their supposed two leaders, Peter and Caspian, who after being courteous – or at least avoiding each other for an hour or two – had started to attack the dignity one another yet again.

Buffy had long since had enough of both of them and was genuinely taking into consideration beating them up in an effort to stop them from ever speaking to each other again, when she saw a diminutive figure running towards them. By the time they had just about reached the entry point to the How, Lucy had joined them, in her hand she held her extraordinary bottle of cordial and she looked ready and willing to give aid to the wounded among them.

Observing the friction within the group, the small numbers of returning warriors and the scowls her brother and the Prince were giving each other, she asked the dreaded question. "What happened?"

She asked it so innocently, but it still managed to short out the temper restraints of the two elder male monarchs. Peter gestured rudely at Caspian before speaking, "Ask him!"

"Me? You could have called it off. There was still time," Caspian responded in kind.

"Caspian…" Susan began in an unproductive attempt to curb the Prince's antagonism.

"Peter!" Buffy yelled at the same time as Susan spoke and for the exact same reason – if not a different male – but it was no use.

Both girls were instantaneously ignored as the egos and hormones of the two young men swelled and surged. "No there wasn't, thanks to you. If you had kept to the plan, those soldiers might be alive right now."

"And if you had just stayed here like I suggested, they definitely would be."

Buffy massaged both of her temples with her hands attempting to alleviate the strain and anxiety that the two bickering males were causing within her brain. It was no use and she snapped, "And if you had **both** listened to me and Lucy, all of this might have been avoided."

"No, it wouldn't," Peter challenged hotly. "Because Caspian in spite of everything would have screwed it up."

"Maybe… but only after you had gotten everyone killed."

"You called us… remember?"

Caspian met Peter's glare, deep brown eyes staring into cool blue, "My first mistake."

Neither one of them heard Susan's aggrieved gasp at the statement or noticed that she took of in the direction of the woods. This infuriated Buffy yet again, she was more than exceptionally sick – and she was convinced that the others felt the same way – of the two of them persistently bickering.

"No, your first mistake was thinking **you** could lead these people."

Caspian continued to glare, "I am not the one who abandoned Narnia."

"You invaded Narnia. You have no more right to it than Miraz does! You… him… your father… Narnia is better off without the lot of you!"

The next instant, the two of them were drawing swords on each other. However it was Edmund who took charge and managed to get them to take notice when he yelled, "_Stop it_," at them. They stopped and simply stood there glaring at one another, ignoring the world around them, until Peter – followed by Edmund – walked away and went into the How.

The second it was over Lucy rushed over to her injured DLF and Caspian went to walk away, so Buffy was forced to grab his arm to make him halt his progress. "Where do you think you are going?"

"I am not going to apologise to **him**. I was going for a walk – or do I need your permission to do so?"

"I am not about to make either one of you say sorry. I just thought you might be going after, Su…"

"Susan? Did she not go into the How?"

"No, she ran off into the woods after you first put your foot in your mouth."

"What?"

Buffy shook her head at him, "When you screamed that it was a mistake to bring us to Narnia…"

"Oh, I guess – uh – I should go and find her?"

"That would be my tactical suggestion," Buffy told him. "And this one… I don't recommend that you ignore."

As an alternative to following the others into the How, Buffy chose to meander off by herself instead. She was far from powerless and more than competent to defend herself if anything should attack. After walking for a while, she found herself down by the stream that ran past the edge of the woods.

The water looked so cool, translucent and blue – bringing an unbidden thought of a certain King's eyes – and she felt so covered with sweat and enclosed in the blood of her friends and foes, that she made a split second decision. Pulling off her dress – over her head to avoid the inaccessible fastenings – and wearing nothing by her slip and panties, she waded out into the stream.

She washed and wrung out her dress, hanging it over a flowering shrub near the edge of the stream, before hurriedly doing the same with her slip and underwear. Glorying in being naked and clean for seemingly the first time since entering Narnia, she swam out to the deepest part of the water and just played, forgetting about everything, until she heard a sharp intake of breath and realised that she was not alone.

Looking over towards the bank she got a look at her uninvited visitor, "Peter?"

"I – uh – sorry," he stuttered, but did not even attempt to look away. "Are you – uh – coming out? I wanted to talk to you…"

"I actually don't think that is a good idea."

"Why?"

"I'm not… sort of… wearing anything."

"I know – I mean, really, I would not have guessed," Peter stumbled over his words. "Your clothes?"

"Wet."

"Like – uh – you?"

"Yes," Buffy replied glad that the water was covering her essentials and he was standing far enough back not to be able to see anything clearly through the water.

Peter looked around before smiling and undoing the top ties of his simple white shirt, giving Buffy a momentary sense of panic. "Take this," he told her throwing it on the bank close to the water.

Buffy stared at his uncovered combat -muscled upper body and all of a sudden wished she had just gone into the How and not put herself into this position. "Are you going to turn around?"

He unenthusiastically did as he was asked and once she was convinced that he was not about to sneak a quick look at her, she climbed like greased lightning from the water and threw on his shirt. It clung to her wet skin and fell only long enough to cover the bare essentials, so she sat down on the grass, cross-legged and endeavoured to pull it over her knees.

"You can look now."

He turned around and stared, "Uh – uh…"

She pushed past the embarrassment, "Peter, why are you here?"

"I'm not sure," he answered as he sat down across from her.

"Well… you sure know how to flatter a girl, don't you?"

"Actually, I did want to – uh – say something to you."

"What?" she asked looking into his eyes and seeing that thing she did not want to distinguish was back in there.

"I wanted to thank you… for before… at the castle."

"It was my job."

"Oh – that's right - I'm your **job**," fury was added to the unidentified one in his blue eyes.

"What is wrong with you now?"

"Nothing!"

"Just tell me…"

"Fine," he spat out. "I'm nothing but a job to you. You lied to me. Played with my feelings…"

"I played with nothing of yours," Buffy responded. "Besides, it's not like you're in love with me or anything…"

"You are **so** sure of that?"

"Two days ago it was, _'I care about you'_ and all of a sudden you're in love?"

"Are you saying you can't care about somebody you love?"

Buffy shook her head, tiny droplets of water flew through the air and landed all around. "You don't know me…"

He cupped her face with his hands and forced her to look into his eyes, "You keep saying that to me, but I know you better than you think. I know that when you're nervous you bite your bottom lip. That when you are trying to lie, that you might be facing that person, but your eyes can't meet their own. You can fight better than most armies I have ever seen and that you don't like to shed tears or appear weak in front of others. And I also know that the first moment my eyes met yours in the Underground –I could see my entire future in them – right down to the number of kids we would have…"

Buffy leaned over and kissed him, after seizing a minute to understand the shock, he responded enthusiastically. "No one has ever said anything like that to me, but I don't know what you want me to say…"

"How about you love me too?"

"Peter… I…" she began, but faltered. "I really don't know."

He kissed her softly once more, "I can wait for the words - for now, anyway – I am not particularly patient. So want to discuss something else?"

"You're staying?"

He nodded, "Well, unless you would like to be alone until your clothes are dry…"

She smiled and threw him a curve with her next question, "How many?"

"What?"

"Kids…"

"Six."

"You're kidding, right?" she asked horrified at the thought, while all he did was smile.

End Part

**Lyrics**:

Sara Evans – Saints & Angels


	12. The Hours Before Trouble Comes

**Chapter Eleven: The Hours Before Trouble Comes**

_/I found myself stumbling through the dark down to my last prayer/_

Good to his declaration, Peter did stay with her until her clothes were dried out. Whether it was because he wanted to spend time with her or was too self-conscious to either walk back to the How shirtless or ask her for it back, she would never know. However she did not in point of fact care, she'd had a fantastic time with him, getting to know him better and realising just how many things they actually – notwithstanding the time period difference – that they had in common and also the things about him that drove her crazy, which were also abundant.

When it was time for her to get dressed, he automatically kept his back to her while she removed his shirt and put on her knickers and slip, only shuddering faintly as he heard the whisper of fabric and his imagination went into overdrive. He turned around – he just could not withstand it any longer – when his shirt flew through the air and landed in his hands.

She perceived the disenchantment in his eyes when he saw that she was in some measure clothed and she endeavoured, ineffectively, not to express amusement at his expression. He smiled at her as he come over to her and helped her on with her dress, even sweeping her hair to the side so he could fasten the corset-like ties on the back for her without being asked.

With her hair out of the way and the bare skin of her neck exposed, he placed a soft kiss against her skin, sending a shiver to shoot down her spine. Giving in he spun her around and pulled her into his arms and kissed her until she was almost breathless. When they finally broke apart she spoke, although unsteadily, "Maybe we should – uh – get back…"

"I suppose we should," Peter replied unhappy at the thought of leaving their time together.

He intertwined his left hand with her right hand securely – so that she could not wriggle away – and began the walk back to the How. She acquiesced for the moment, bewildered and flustered over her sphere of feelings. Guilt, attraction, happiness, more guilt, as well as million others flooded through her and she had no way to sort through them without someone to talk to and that was an impossibility. The only female – Human – close to her age was Susan and it might be more than a little embarrassing to discuss Peter with his sister and besides her… there was Caspian, a dwarf and some Minotaurs.

Also she had the additional pressure of the upcoming battle to contemplate; did it have some bearing on what she thought she might be feeling? Everything was so messed up and confusing that she wished that she could simply bury her head in the sand and wait for it all to be over.

As they came in close proximity to the How, two recognizable figures burst out of the woods, one in chase of the other. Buffy sighed and wondered what Susan and Caspian had done to each other now… She felt the contraction of Peter's fingers on her own as they heard Caspian call out for Susan's attention. When they slackened Buffy thought there might be a reprieve, until she saw the expression on his face.

"Peter, don't!"

He ignored her and marched of fin the direction of Caspian, determined to interfere. "Keep away from my sister."

"Stay out of this," Caspian spat back. "This is not any of your concern."

"My sister, my business."

"I do not interfere in your relationship…"

"Relationship?"

"Peter!" Buffy called as she ultimately caught up to them. "Leave Caspian be."

"No," he declared obstinately at her, before turning back to Caspian. "What relationship do you have with **my** sister?"

"I am in love with Queen Susan."

"You're what?"

"I love…"

"I heard you," Peter said his voice iced over. "She's my sister."

"She is not mine."

At that declaration, Buffy cringed as she saw – practically in slow motion – Peter's fist ball and fly through the air, hitting the Prince squarely in the nose. She shook her head in abhorrence at the sight in front of her – two people who should know better – a King rubbing his fist and a Prince holding a bloody nose. Turning around, she headed to the How to search for Lucy and her cordial, hoping that the two of them would behave while she was gone.

"Have you seen Caspian?"

The question surprised Buffy; she was sitting down on the outside ledge of the How, watching the Narnian army's sword and archery preparation and without a sound contemplating how they were going to vanquish Miraz and his men. She looked up at him and raised her eyebrows in incredulity, "And if I knew the answer to that… I would tell you, why?"

"I need to apologise."

"You?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I should not have hit him…"

"Is that all?" she encouraged.

Peter sighed, "I should also not get in the way of whatever is going on with him and Susan. I should also have not attacked him over the raid."

Buffy smiled rather wickedly, "That's very well-mannered of you. So what did Su do to you to bring about this impulsive change of heart?"

Peter declined to meet her eyes, turned an intense pink and shuffled his foot along the stone ledge looking uncomfortable. "I do not wish to discuss it – ever!"

"Last time I saw Caspian, he was heading into the stone table room to sulk."

Peter looked at her unexpectedly, "Do you think I was wrong?"

"Yes, but you're impulsive and protective. You act before you think, more than ever when it comes to those you love – it's something we have in common."

"Will you come with me? I am not good at saying sorry."

Buffy held out her hand and he took hold of it to help her up, before the two of them entered the interior of the How. As they came in the vicinity of the doorway to the room that Caspian was hiding in, they encountered Lucy, Edmund and Trumpkin, doing nothing and looking extraordinarily uninterested and discouraged.

"Where do **you** two think you're going?" Lucy asked slyly, looking at their entangled hands.

"Peter is going to apologise to Caspian," Buffy informed them.

"He is?" Edmund looked shocked at the thought.

Peter acknowledged it to some extent rather half-heartedly, "I am."

"This I **have** to see," Edmund proclaimed following them towards the room. "Peter **never** apologises for anything. Did you or Su torture him, Buffy?"

"Shut up, Ed!" Peter yelled.

The twosome became a quintet as they entered the stone table room. However the spectacle that welcomed them when they got there, pushed all other thoughts and banter from their minds. Caspian was stood in front of a wall of ice and there was a woman inside of it, beckoning to him.

Buffy stood there for a short time bewildered as Peter, Edmund and Trumpkin sprang into action. Weapons drawn they rushed headlong into the room and the circumstances that were unfolding. Each one of them had an adversary of their own – fighting for their lives – as Caspian stood there more or less frozen.

After a moment Buffy joined in the skirmish, she chose to help Edmund battle the Werewolf and leave Peter and Trumpkin to do their individual things. Her determination was based on menace level and not on anything personal – a werewolf was exceedingly more of a threat than the others if it were to get away.

Out of the corner of her eyes she became aware of Lucy and that she had come to the aid of Trumpkin and Peter was having little trouble with his Hag. She and Edmund kept up the pressure on the Werewolf, confusing it by giving it more than one target to aim for. In the end it came down to one straightforward team move, she placed a well implemented roundhouse kick to the Werewolf's midsection and as he flew through the air, Edmund sliced through him – cutting him in half.

Buffy observed that Peter had defeated the Hag and had rushed over to Caspian, knocking the Prince out of the way. He pointed his sword at the ice woman, "Get away from him."

The woman looked shocked, "Peter, dear… I have missed you. Come, just one drop." She reached towards him, "You know you cannot do this alone."

She saw Edmund sneaking around towards the back of the woman and Buffy decided to intervene, just in case. Pushing Peter and his steadily lowering sword out to the way, she stood in front of the woman. "Who are you?"

"Ah, a new one. Give me just one drop of your blood and I shall be free."

"No thanks… not interested."

"You dare to defy me..." the woman yelled wondering why she could not put his slip of a girl under her thrall.

Buffy nodded, "Pretty much."

"Do you know who I am?"

"No - I did ask, but you were too rude to answer."

"I am Jadis, Queen of Narnia..."

Buffy looked at her, "Sorry wrong answer. Lucy and Susan are the only Queens I know of."

"Girl…" she began, but without warning groaned instead.

The wall of ice all of a sudden shattered into a million minuscule pieces and all that was left was Edmund standing there with his sword drawn. Buffy walked over to him and slapped him on the back, "Way to go, Ed."

"Ed… I…" Peter stuttered.

"I know," Ed answered sarcastically. "You had it sorted."

At a distressed gasp, everyone looked up and saw Susan in the entrance to the room. She looked at each of them in turn and Buffy out of the blue had the impression that she back in class, had once again not done her homework and the teacher was about to call her on it. When Susan was done, she sent a ominous glare to Peter and Caspian, before turning around and leaving the room and a befuddled Prince behind.

Buffy looked over at them all, "So… who or what really was that? And why do I feel as though we have just avoided a most important disaster?"

The remainder of the day seemed to drag on and on, two Kings, one Queen and a Prince had split up the remaining army into groups. One group went with Susan – and a still trying to make-up Caspian – for archery practice. The remaining warriors stayed with Peter and Edmund for sword training and the ones who were not participating in the fight returned to the How to continue preparations.

Buffy had taken Lucy to one side to give the young girl a few hand-to-hand techniques in case of any trouble and had found herself with a group of her own – consisting of a couple of younger Centaurs. She had them pair off after she had shown them a few things so that she could see what they needed to have more training on and she also worked with Lucy – who turned out to be a lot sneakier than she looked.

Dusk was a hair's breath from falling when Edmund approached her. She looked up at him dubiously, "What's up?"

"We – Peter and I – are going to have a sword fighting demonstration…"

"And you want my group to watch?"

"Yes… no… not exactly…"

"Spit it out, Ed!"

"Lu and the others can watch. I want you to – uh – teach Peter a lesson."

"What?"

"He is being insufferable again… so I thought… maybe you could… show him humility."

"Go on, Buffy," Lucy urged. "It will be fun… for us anyway."

Buffy nodded her consent, "Okay."

"I'll go set things up," Edmund replied a malicious smirk settling over his face.

"And I'll go get Su and Caspian," Lucy told her before running off.

She stood there abruptly on her own and asked no one in particular, "Why is it always me?"

Ten minutes later she meandered over to where Peter was waiting - with irritation - to perform his demonstration. The crowd was growing progressively larger and Buffy knew that Lucy and Edmund had been spreading their set up to everyone who would listen. As she approached him, he smiled at her and she realised that Peter was the only one who had no idea what was in fact going on.

"Did you come to watch me destroy Ed?"

Buffy tried not to laugh, "Not exactly…"

"Ed won't win, you know. He never can beat me."

At that moment, Edmund arrived with Lucy, Susan and a large amount more contented Caspian in tow. Buffy was undecided if the Prince was in high spirits because he had made-up with Susan or because Peter was about to get his behind delivered to him in front of a large crowd.

"Ready, Pete?" Ed asked serenely.

"Absolutely, Ed."

"Great. You can use my sword, Buffy," Ed replied handing over his weapon to her.

Peter paled as she smiled and accepted it, "Thanks, Ed."

"Buffy…" Peter started apprehensively.

"Yes, Peter?"

"Try not to kill me."

She laughed, "I'll do my best."

End

**Lyrics**:

Trace Adkins – And Then There Was You


	13. The Army Arrives

**Chapter Twelve: The Army Arrives**

_/Tell me is it real,  
If it ain't hurting/_

The next morning Peter was even now sulking over Edmund's little arrangement and his humiliating, public defeat. Buffy – as well as his siblings and Caspian – had attempted to get through to him, but he was an obstinate King of Old. Deciding to give it one final try before she was forced to use violence and beat his head in, she tracked him down and found him in the stone table room, sitting on the broken stone and staring at the carving of Aslan.

"Are you still upset?" she asked as she sat down beside him on the cold stone.

"No… maybe a little," he replied absent-mindedly. They sat in silence for a few minutes when out of nowhere he asked, "Have you ever seen him?"

"Who?"

"Aslan."

"No," she answered shaking her head. "I was sent here at his request, but through… I guess you could call them messengers…"

"Why doesn't he come? We need his help."

"I don't know… maybe it's like Lucy said, we need to find him. To show him something…"

He turned his head to look at her and leaned in close, fusing his lips with his own in an unforeseen kiss. They were so involved with each other that they did not even perceive that Lucy and Edmund had entered the room or that they were staring at them, to some extent disgusted at the behaviour of the teenagers.

"Pete, Buffy… you had both better come quickly," Edmund said disrupting them. "And could you please stop that before you scar Lu and me for life. It was bad enough seeing Su and Caspian at earlier."

"What did he say?" Peter muttered as they broke apart.

"Nothing."

She got up and dragged him off after Lucy and Edmund and they ended up on the outside of the How. They joined them, as well as Susan, Caspian, Trumpkin and the Professor out there. In the distance they could all unmistakably see the Telmarine army was approaching, led my Miraz who was wearing full body armour that shined in the sunlight.

Buffy surveyed the approaching army, took note of how many there were and their weaponry. She swallowed nervously, "This is not good."

Less than ten minutes later, every person who needed to be there was at another meeting in the stone table room. Peter was standing in the midpoint of the room and was outlining his plan to send Lucy off into the forest to find Aslan.

Trumpkin did not approve and let everyone know it. "Cakes and kettledrums! That's your next big plan? Sending a little girl alone into the darkest parts of the forest, alone?"

"It's our only chance," Peter argued, staring at Trumpkin.

"And she won't be alone," Susan added while she avoided the stare of the Prince.

"Haven't enough of us died already?"

"Trumpkin," Buffy said placing a hand on the dwarf's shoulder. "None of us have a better idea and if Aslan can turn the tide of this fight – save us or at least help – we need to try."

"Fine," he grumbled pulling away from her and walking over to Lucy. "Then I'm going with you."

Lucy smiled at her DLF, "No… we need you here."

Peter sighed, "We have to find a way to hold them off until Lucy and Susan can get back."

Caspian – still staring at Susan – stepped forward, "If I may…"

When everyone in the room turned their attention to him, he continued, "Miraz may be a tyrant and a murderer. But as King, he is subject to the traditions and the expectations of his people. There is one in particular that may by us some time…"

"It should be me," Caspian argued.

The room had cleared out leaving the Pevensies, Caspian, Trumpkin and Buffy in the stone table room, to hammer out who would put forward the challenge to Miraz. Or in Buffy's estimation, who was dim-witted enough to die before the battle had even started.

"No," Susan objected.

"Su's right," Peter added. "Caspian, you are too important to be sacrificed in this way."

Edmund volunteered, "I'll do it."

Lucy hit him in the arm, "No… you won't."

"I'll do it," Buffy said - she didn't want too, but she was the best choice out of the candidates.

"No way," Peter told her. "You are not going to get yourself killed over this."

"Besides," Caspian added. "Miraz would never accept a challenge from a woman. He considers them beneath him – in more ways than one."

Peter nodded, "That leaves only one… me. I shall put forward the challenge."

"This is not a good idea," Buffy told Peter for the fiftieth time as he, Edmund and Caspian leaned over the table working on their precious challenge document.

Since she was still being ignored, she contented herself with glaring at their backs. It was a stupid, macho idea and that was why Peter loved it. When Peter had volunteered himself and proclaimed that he was the only viable candidate, she had almost thumped him. How the hell was she supposed to figure out how she felt about him if he went and got himself killed?

"I think it's done," Peter said suddenly.

Caspian nodded, "It does sound effective."

"How are we supposed to deliver it?" Edmund asked logically.

The two older boys exchanged looks before Caspian spoke, "Edmund should deliver it. As a King of Narnia, he should command the respect needed… at least in theory."

"I'll go," Edmund agreed.

"I'll go too," Buffy added.

Peter turned to face her, "No… you won't."

"Don't let this be personal, Peter," she replied. "Ed will need backup and we both know I am the best one for the job. From what Caspian says, they will never in a million years expect trouble from a mere girl."

"She is correct," Caspian confirmed.

Peter snarled, "I want to talk you." He grabbed a hold of her and dragged her out of the room, out into the darkened corridor. Pushing her up against the rough stone wall, he held her in place with the pressure of his body. "What are you doing?"

"Right now? Fighting the urge to kill you."

"Buffy…"

"Pete, you know I am right about this. Ed needs my help on this."

"I know," he admitted. "I just don't want you to get hurt…"

"You're about to go fight to the death, followed by a battle and you decide that now…"

He shut her up with a kiss, "You are driving me insane."

"Right back at you," she replied rejoining their lips.

From inside the room, Edmund's voice drifted out, "Are you both coming back in here, or what?"

They pulled apart, "Just be careful."

"I'll try."

They went back into the room and Peter told them, "Buffy and Edmund will deliver the challenge."

"When?" Edmund asked.

"Well…" Peter sighed. "There is no time like the present."

Edmund, Buffy and Glenstorm – who had been adamant on accompanying them – walked across what was to become within the next day or two the battlefield, carrying green branches to indicate that they had a message, towards where the Telmarine army had positioned themselves. Once there, they were shown to a tent that purportedly contained Miraz and his Lords. The Telmarine soldiers forced Glenstorm to wait outside as Buffy and Edmund entered and upon seeing Miraz, Edmund unrolled the scroll and began to read.

"I, Peter, by gift of Aslan, by election and by conquest, High King of Narnia, Lord of Cair Paravel and Emperor of the Lone Islands, in order to prevent the abominable effusion of blood, do hereby challenge the usurper Miraz to single combat upon the field of battle. The fight shall be to the death. The reward shall be total surrender."

"Is she a part of this **proposal**?" Miraz asked leering at Buffy.

"Only in my nightmares," Buffy answered glaring at the supposed Telmarine King.

Edmund butted in before Buffy could get herself into more trouble, "She is King Peter's intended. She is here **only** to assure that I deliver the challenge correctly."

Miraz was still leering at Buffy, but was speaking to Edmund, "Tell me, Prince Edmund…"

"King."

"Pardon?"

"It's King Edmund actually. Just King though. Peter is the High King. I know it's confusing."

"Why would we risk such a proposal when our army could wipe you out by nightfall?"

Edmund smirked, "Haven't you all ready underestimated our numbers? Only a week ago Narnians were extinct."

"And so you shall be again."

"Then you have little to fear."

Miraz laughed, "This is not a question of bravery."

"So… you are bravely refusing to fight a swordsman half of your age?" Edmund questioned and Buffy tried not to laugh at the expression on Miraz's face.

"I did not say, I refused."

One of the Telmarine Lords spoke up, "You shall have our support Your Majesty. Whatever your decision."

Sopespian added, "Sire, our military advantage alone allows us the perfect excuse to avoid…"

Miraz stood up and drew his sword at the words that had been uttered. "I am not avoiding anything."

Sopespian looked fearful, "I am merely pointing out that my Lord is well within his rights to refuse."

Buffy watched inquisitively the subtle indications between the man who had just spoken and the general and decided it was most likely an order of sorts. She was confirmed accurate when within moments the general had stood up and began to speak to Miraz.

"His Majesty would never refuse. He relishes the chance to show his people the bravery of their new King."

Miraz turned to Edmund and pointed the sword in his direction. "You had better hope your brother's sword proves sharper."'

Edmund and Buffy exchanged looks and smiled as they heard Miraz's response. They turned around to disappear from the tent, get away from the Telmarines and report what had happened back to Peter, when Buffy was called back by Miraz.

She glared at him, "Your Majesty?"

"When this is all over… I will look forward to having you… and sharing you with my men."

"I'll look forward to it too, Your Majesty."

"You will?" Edmund and Miraz chorused almost comically.

"Absolutely. I will look forward to tearing out your throat and listening to the gurgle of your very last breath through the overflow of your blood when you are ridiculous enough to attempt that," she told him.

He laughed at her, "And who will do this? Your intended shall be dead."

"I will," she answered with conviction. "Didn't anyone ever tell you not to underestimate a woman?"

End Part

**Lyrics**:

Vanessa Amorossi - Perfect


	14. King Vs King

**Chapter Thirteen: King versus King**

_/This could be the last time  
I look in your eyes/_

When at long last they arrived back at the How, they headed without delay for Peter to give an account of Miraz's answer to the challenge. At the response Peter and Caspian had been excessively satisfied with themselves and their strategy. At least that was until Edmund opened his big mouth and informed Peter of exactly what Miraz said to Buffy, causing Peter to go red with temper.

Yet when she had told him she had dealt with the state of affairs and even when she had let him know of the warning she used… Nothing worked. Buffy could not help but be apprehensive that Peter would be preoccupied by the knowledge or so set on some form of vengeance during the combat that he would get himself wounded or even killed.

As the time for the combat drew nearer, every person busied themselves with some endeavour. Edmund gave instructions the troops. Caspian was seeing Susan and Lucy off on their mission, even lending them his devoted horse for the expedition. Peter was getting ready by himself – at his own insistence – and Buffy was… well… supposed to be doing something. She just could not give attention to any task when she was so worked up over the inflexibility of the High King.

So she did what any girl would do, she snuck in to see Peter. To talk some sense into his obstinate self. What she got was an additional flash of muscled bare chest and a parched mouth. That was accompanied by a momentary failure in memory, when everything she had planned to say to him, flew out of her little blonde head.

"Buffy?" he noticed her and paused his movements, which left him half naked.

"Uh – Peter," she said closing her eyes. "We should talk."

"Why are your eyes closed?"

"No reason… I guess…" she reluctantly opened them.

He pulled his undershirt on over his head – to Buffy's relief – and continued, "I don't want you to worry. Miraz will not get away with insulting you."

"That is precisely what I wanted to talk about. I don't want you to do anything foolish."

"What do you mean?"

She stepped towards him, "I can deal with Miraz and his disturbing friends. But if you were to go out there… Just promise me you will concentrate on the fight and not on some vendetta over my honour…"

"But…"

"No, buts," she told him. "I don't want you hurt."

Peter cupped her face with his hand, "I am not about to get hurt. I am thirteen-hundred years older than him."

"As well as cockier and not a cruel murdering bastard like he is, but that's what he has as the advantage."

"It won't be an advantage for long, it will be his downfall," he promised her looking into her eyes, tempestuous blue meeting an apprehensive green. "Nothing is going to happen to me."

"Good! Because if you die out there… I will kill you myself," she said before giving into temptation and kissing him.

He laughed at her little lecture, "Perfect! Now get out of here, you are distracting me."

"Are you ready?" Buffy asked Peter when he materialized from the room a half hour later, fully dressed in his armour. She had been waiting for him to finish and come out, so that she could have one more go at him about the whole _'defending of Buffy's honour'_ crap.

"As I will ever be…" he murmured.

Edmund came running into the corridor, "It's time, Pete."

Buffy watched as Peter squared his shoulders and put on his imperial High King expression, prepared to show Miraz and the rest of the Telmarines that he did not fear them, nor did he fear death. She pushed past him and Edmund; she found herself dragged back and facing him.

"Where do you think you are going?"

"Out there with you," she told him. "Someone has to watch Ed's and your backs."

"She might be able to distract Miraz…" Edmund added as a proposal.

Peter's eyes frosted over with fury – a common reaction when dealing with Buffy – but this time his expression never changed. "I don't think so."

"Pete, we need every advantage. Now is not the time to let things get personal," Edmund said, echoing Buffy's earlier words. "Let her come with us."

"Fine," he replied. As Edmund moved away he whispered to her, "Be careful."

"That is what I was going to say to you."

The three of them walked out of the How and saw that more or less every Narnian they had with them – that was not part of the special plan – was lined up and ready to watch their King fight. They cheered for Peter, showing their confidence in him and their encouragement. He nodded his acknowledgement and then continued towards where Miraz and his chosen backups were waiting for him.

As they moved towards their opponents, Buffy's eyes narrowed at the crossbow that was in the general's hand and knew precisely what it was for. However she calculated that she could in all probability stop the bolt if he shot at Peter. If not… well, she would have to take her retribution later on.

When the got there Edmund handed Peter his helmet, leaving the visor up. Drawing his sword Peter stepped forward at the same time as Miraz did and they started to circle one another. Round and round they went, neither one wanting to give the other any variety of advantage.

"I see that you brought your whore with you."

"Well she had expressed a fascination in seeing your blood spill out across the battlefield," Peter replied, internally seething over the comment. "So I thought I'd indulge her."

"Do not test me, boy."

"Do not insult **my** woman, old man."

Buffy could hear each and every word and was not definite as to which King she wanted to exterminate more. She was not delighted at being characterized as someone's woman or called a whore - which was without doubt worse. However she supposed she would have to let Peter live… at least until after the battle had been fought - besides, she already had a date to rip that creep Miraz's throat out.

"There is still time to surrender."

"Feel free," Peter told him.

"How many more must die for the throne?"

Peter glared at the man, "Just one."

She and Edmund cringed as Peter pulled down his visor and jumped at Miraz. The commencement of the combat caused both armies to begin to shout approval for their respective monarchs. The two of them were unfortunately reasonably matched – notwithstanding the perceptible age difference. Each and every blow was met by a countering one from the opposition and it seemed as though neither man was gaining an advantage.

Peter unexpectedly swung back around and landed a formidable blow to Miraz's back. Regrettably, even though it had looked extraordinary it did nothing but to some extent wind the older man. In return for the strike, Miraz managed to knock off Peter's helmet and his coif, causing Buffy's heart to compress at his exposure.

It was gradually killing her to watch the combat. As a girl her feelings about it were immobilizing, crushing her underneath a deluge of helplessness. However, at the same time her slayer disposition and mind, were anticipating the moves of each challenger and planning the best stratagem and counteractions.

She turned her concentration back to the fighting in time to see Peter cut Miraz's leg, causing a gratifying squeal of pain. Buffy very nearly relaxed until she saw the next move, where Miraz knocked Peter down and stepped onto his shield causing a pain-filled bellow of his own. Glaring she watched as Peter rolled and blocked his way along the ground, avoiding the strikes and giving himself a few moments to recover.

When he unexpectedly stopped, he caused Miraz to stagger and Buffy was full of pride for him when he used the interruption to his own benefit and rose to his feet. The two of them just stood there and stared at each other, both breathing heavily from exhausting themselves. As Peter looked up she saw his expression transform, turning Buffy looked in that direction and spotted Susan and Caspian riding up.

"Does his Highness need a respite?" Miraz mocked.

"Five minutes?" Peter suggested.

Miraz typically countered, "Three."

Buffy hurried over to assist Peter back to where Edmund was waiting for them, wordlessly checking him over for injuries noticeable and those not-so. He pushed her away as Susan and Caspian came rushing up and apprehension for Lucy's wellbeing rode roughshod over his own. "Lucy?"

"She got through," Susan told him. She locked eyes with Caspian and smiled, "With a little help."

To everyone's astonishment Peter looked at his accustomed competitor and said, "Thank you."

Caspian flushed pink with embarrassment, "Well… you were busy."

While they were talking, Buffy looked over to where Miraz and his general were in discussion and she could just about hear every word they spoke. The elder King turned and caught her eye and in point of fact had the overconfidence to wink at her. Buffy replied by putting her hand to her throat and making a ripping movement. She had to acknowledge that she was reasonably satisfied when he paled in remembrance of her earlier threat.

She turned back to her companions in time to hear Peter order Susan up with the other archers. She was reassured that Peter wasn't acting as inexperienced as she had thought he might have over this little exhibit. Fortuitously he realised that the chances of the Telmarine's keeping their word was slim to none.

Susan hugged her brother, causing him to grimace in pain. "Sorry," she told him before hurrying off.

"I knew it," Buffy whispered. "Why didn't you just tell us you were hurt?"

Edmund surveyed the crowd and then told Peter, "Keep smiling."

Being a respectable boy and doing as he was advised, he smiled at the crowd and roused his sword. He heard the applause and lowered his weapon as soon as it was feasible, trying to hold back the whimpers of pain. Regrettably for him, both Buffy and Edmund heard them.

"I think he's dislocated it," Buffy told Edmund as she examined the area.

Edmund smiled, "No problem. I can fix that."

Peter looked at Buffy and for the first time since she had met him she could see trepidation in them. "What do you think happens back home… if you die here?"

Buffy placed a innocent kiss against his forehead, "I don't know."

He then turned to Edmund, "You know, you have always been there. I never really…"

"Save it, Peter."

"I'm not going to fall for it Ed. There is nothing you can do to distract me…"

Buffy and Edmund exchanged looks and she knelt down next to Peter at his level, meeting his eyes with her own. "Peter…"

"Yes?"

She took a deep breath, "I love you."

While Peter sat there flabbergasted, Edmund popped his shoulder back in. "Looks like you fell for something…"

He ignored Edmund and the pain, "Do you mean it?"

Buffy saw Miraz stand back up and she kissed him quickly. "Survive this and I'll tell you."

Peter stood up and after refusing his helmet, walked back out into the fighting arena again. When he was out there Edmund turned to her, "What a way to encourage him, Buffy."

"Shut up, Ed!"

With renewed enthusiasm Peter attacked his opponent speedily; sorry to say he was parried for each thrust of his sword. Losing his advantage, Peter found himself being hit over and over again by Miraz's shield until he fell to the ground once more. Buffy closed her eyes and turned her head away not capable 

of watching that creep Miraz pound Peter to any further extent, she wanted more than anything at that moment to take Peter's place in the challenge and show that usurper exactly what pain and dishonour were.

"Way to go, Pete," Edmund yelled.

She turned around, in time to see Peter thump Miraz in his wounded leg, causing the matured King to scream in pain and fall down to the hardened ground, dropping his sword in the process. Peter stood over the man, with sword in hand and… not anything. He simply stood there staring down at his opponent.

"Respite! Respite!" Miraz begged seeing an opportunity to take advantage of Peter's perceptible weakness.

"Now is not the time for chivalry, Pete!" Edmund called out to his brother.

"Would you just kill him all ready, before I have to come out there and do it," Buffy added. Two seconds later she noticed that Caspian and Edmund were staring at her, "What? You all ready know I'm a bloodthirsty girl."

Peter was still wavering when they at long last looked back and then without warning he simply walked away, back towards them. Buffy, Edmund and Caspian gasped as Miraz grabbed his sword and lunged for Peter's back. Peter – who seemingly had eyes in the back of his head - dodged the blow just in time, grabbed a hold of the sword and twisted it around to stab Miraz beneath the arm.

With Miraz on his knees in front of him Peter hesitated again, so much so Miraz felt safe to heckle him. "What is the matter boy? Too cowardly to take a life?"

"It's not mine to take," Peter replied looking at Caspian. He handed the sword to his fellow warrior and moved away as Caspian took the position over Miraz.

"Perhaps I was wrong. It seems you have the markings of a good Telmarine King after all."

All and sundry watched as Caspian raised the sword high above his uncle's head and held it there, a scream rang out and he stabbed it down. Buffy was reassured – as well as annoyed – that Caspian could not do it, that he had stabbed the ground instead and somewhere up above she knew Susan was thankful of it too.

"Not one like you. Keep your life, but I am giving the Narnians back their Kingdom," and with those words Caspian walked away towards his people who were cheering for him.

The grouping of them took their eyes away from Miraz and the other Telmarines for a minute to pass on good wishes to their friend, when they heard an audible gasp. Looking back they saw Sopespian holding one of Susan's arrows that he had plunged into Miraz's back.

He lifted Miraz's sword at them and then yelled, "Treachery! They shot him! They murdered our King! To arms!"

Buffy just shook her head, "I knew I should have killed him."

End Part

**Lyrics**:

Rascal Flatts – Help Me Remember


	15. Shake, Battle and Roll

**Chapter Fourteen – Shake, Battle and Roll**

_/Human pride sings a vengeful song/_

Buffy and the others watched as the two Telmarines – Gozelle and Sopespian – rode over to where the Telmarine armed forces were, to call them into battle. The few soldiers that had been left behind were sacrificed as they attacked the grouping and were effortlessly done away with. Edmund pulled out a sword and handed it to Buffy – who decided it was so much better not to know where he had hidden it – as the first wave of Telmarines charged at them.

She became aware that Peter had said something to Caspian and realised that the scheme was being put into motion. She saw Caspian climb onto his horse and wait for Peter's indication, she wished she had more time to take pleasure in the fact that they seemed to have put aside their differences for the moment and were working as a cohesive team.

When the Telmarine Calvary reached a specified position on the battlefield, Peter nodded to Caspian, who in turn rode off into the How to where the rest of their plan was waiting impatiently. Buffy turned her concentration in the direction of the soldiers riding towards them, tuning out Peter who was counting down and Susan who was – even from a distance – effortlessly heard barking orders to the archers.

Her slayer side was hankering for the exchange of blows, to experience the adrenaline rush, to show her rightful self and not have to keep secret her nature from anyone. However she knew that she would have to delay, that divergence from the strategy would obliterate any chance they might have of victory – no matter how slight that chance was.

And then it happened, completely as they had intended. The ground opened up and swallowed the Telmarine Calvary, allowing the archers to complete their task. She watched as the falling soldiers tried to claw their way out from the pit and the few of them that in fact managed it were speedily dispatched as Caspian and his Narnian troops emerged into the light and circled back around them – cutting off all means of escape.

The remainder of the Telmarine forces – a rather large remainder – started to press forward towards them and their base of operations. Peter surveyed them and then looked around at his own forces before calling for the draw back to the How.

As the Narnians started to withdraw the Telmarines began to unleash rocks using their trebuchets at the How. Hitting the stone construction, knocking down fragments which not only blocked the entry way but in point of fact killed some of the Narnians, crushing them underneath the rubble. After a momentary scare involving Susan, Peter called for the charge and led the way with his weapon drawn. Buffy simply followed anxious to get into the skirmish and be of use.

The encounter raged all around her and she revelled in it. She whirled; thrust and parried her way through at least a half dozen Telmarines before she had managed to even take a look around at the escalating situation. She pushed past it all – trepidation for her friends and allies… for Peter – and kept on fighting, all that existed was her and her enemy.

A Telmarine came out of nowhere and swung at her, stumbling forward and gaping as she flipped herself up into the air and sailed over his head before stabbing him and kicking his wounded body to the ground. Spinning around with poise, without missing a beat, she kicked another one out of her way and moved herself further into the multitude.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of a group of Telmarine's ganging up on Caspian and pushing him into the pit, but recognizing that the Prince was more than competent in defending himself she continued her own campaign. Pounding her way through the militia, she was feeling better than she 

had in months. Buffy roundhouse kicked an additional Telmarine out of her way; however this time instead of him simply flying through the air and crashing excruciatingly to the ground, something caught him mid-air.

It was an enormous tree root, which basically crushed the man and Buffy found herself powerless to do anything but look intently at the sight… until she was yet again targeted by another Telmarine soldier. As she was dispatching with the aggravation, she thought about what she had just witnessed. Lucy had told her that the trees used to dance – long ago – but she had one way or another forgotten to mention their ass-kicking capabilities.

From somewhere in close proximity, she heard Peter exclaim _"For Aslan"_ and saw the greater part of the Narnian troops sprint past her position. However she did not join them, contented to circumvent – and play with – with a couple of Telmarines who were anxious not to be overpowered by a mere slip of a girl.

When she was done, she looked up to see the Telmarines were in complete withdrawal and like her companions she followed them through the wooded area, smelling the blood in the air – so to speak. They ended up at the river, the ford at which a few days earlier they had spotted them constructing the bridge.

She watched as the Telmarines started to traverse the river, several across the bridge and others daring to endure the river. They all abruptly paused and she was able to see that across the river on the opposite side of the bridge, Lucy stood, very much alone and armed only with a dagger. Within seconds a colossal lion – which Buffy could only presuppose was Aslan – joined the young girl's side.

Turning her concentration to the leader of this rag-tag bunch of rabble, Sopespian, she saw as his expression changed from one of astonishment at the sight of Aslan to the customary one of Telmarine self-importance. When he called _"Charge"_ to his remaining soldiers, she was forced to choke back a laugh at his foolhardiness.

His army had barely taken a couple of steps when Aslan roared, causing them all to immobilize once more in their tracks. Around them the water of the river began to perform extraordinarily, rising and falling and rippling as it rushed past them. All of a sudden a sizeable percentage shot straight up into the air and took the form of a man made of water – a River God.

The majority of the Telmarine soldiers ran and/or jumped for their lives at the glimpse of its imposing and yet fear-provoking form. All apart from for Sopespian and some of his dedicated followers, who idiotically stayed put in the centre of the bridge. The water being/River God tore the bridge from its moorings and lifted it far above the ground into the air, eradicating it of all but Sopespian.

The foolish idiot swung his sword at the being made out of water, as its mouth came down and closed over him – in a manner of speaking eating him alive. It was then that the remaining Telmarines surrendered to Caspian, the Narnians and to Aslan, not one of them prepared to share the providence of their leader.

As the Telmarines came out of the water, they each half-heartedly surrendered their weapons and were led away to a out of the ordinary holding place that one of the fauns thought up. No one really cared enough to ask him what it was, just as long as no one was treated appallingly. Buffy was supervising the weapon deposits, paying no attention to Peter's request to come with him to meet Aslan.

Surreptitiously she watched as the four of them – Caspian, Susan, Peter and Edmund – knelt down in front of the lion. Aslan turned his head and looked in her direction and she speedily turned away. She was exceptionally ill at ease with the examination from the large lion and pretended to be much more interested in completing her current task.

Out of the blue she heard Edmund yell, "Buffy! Get yourself over here."

She looked over at them again and noticed that this time they were all looking at her and Lucy was beckoning. She mumbled _"Shit"_ under her breath and began to cross the river towards them. When she made it to the other side, she looked him in the eye and said, "You summoned?"

"in more ways than one," Aslan greeted her. "Welcome to Narnia, Vampire Slayer. I trust that you have enjoyed your time here."

Buffy blushed under Peter's and Aslan's gazes, "No one should enjoy war."

"No... No one should," Aslan agreed. "But sometimes out of the darkness comes a new ray of light."

"And every now and then all that comes is more darkness, death and blood," she replied.

No more words were exchanged because Reepicheep's men marched up transporting their leader. Lucy rushed to the side of her mouse friend and gave him a droplet of her special cordial to heal his wounds and make him whole again. He jumped up and thanked Lucy abundantly, causing Buffy to tune him out.

Seeing her attention was diverted, Peter leaned over to her, "You know we have something to talk about…"

"Do we?"

"Buffy…"

She looked at him, "What?"

"Sometimes I just want to…"

Buffy turned her attention back to the others surrounding the lion in time to hear him ask Lucy about her DLF – and pay no heed to Peter's incensed mumbling. Poor old Trumpkin looked frightened to death as he shuffled forward and bowed in deference to Aslan. The great lion roared, causing Trumpkin to shudder and Lucy to laugh cheerfully.

"Do you see him now?"

End Part

**Lyrics:**

Creed – What If

**Notes:**

Sorry this part is a little short, but I wanted to keep it totally separate from the parts surrounding it.

Also thank you to everyone who has reviewed. I am slowly wading through the emails and will eventually finish them.


	16. Return of the Aslan

**Chapter Fifteen: Return of the Aslan**

_/Tell me who you think you see  
When you look into my eyes/_

They all returned to the How, with Aslan, there were just so countless things to do there. Collect the wounded – treat all that they could with Lucy's cordial – and others that had been left behind, round up the weapons, bury the dead – both sides – and so on. After many of the responsibilities had been assigned and/or completed, the Pevensies and Caspian wanted to show Aslan what had happened using their battle map and Buffy took a well deserved and necessary break from them.

Her slayer senses were still prickling and not in the way they frequently did. Aslan was causing a not precisely pleasurable sensation within her. He was not evil, but he radiated such power and presence that it was excruciating for her to be near him for too long.

She sat down on the stone table and relaxed; she knew that she would be Aslan free there as it was the one room he had requested they not show him. The sensation was endurable now that she was farther away from him and she momentarily wondered what kind of creature he was to have provoked such a tremendous reaction.

"So this is where you're hiding?"

Buffy looked up and spotted Trumpkin lurking in the doorway. She smiled at him, "I'm not hiding… exactly."

"Don't you like Aslan?"

"What's not to like…"

"So?" he pushed.

"He affects me," she admitted grudgingly.

The dwarf walked over towards her, "What do you mean?"

"As a slayer – I sense things - Vampires, demons, danger… things like that. Not one being in Narnia has triggered it, but Aslan…"

"You can feel him?"

"Yes."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"It's a painful thing."

He sat down next to her, "Oh well… maybe he'll just bugger off again."

"Somehow I doubt it."

When night finally fell, she could no longer hide from view – not because she didn't want to, but because Trumpkin was blackmailing her. The Narnians were throwing a triumph celebration and everyone was supposed to be present at it, or in the dwarf's words '_If I have to go, you do… or do you want me to tell the High King and Aslan where you're hiding?'_

She wandered outside and was flabbergasted by the sight in front of her. The battlefield seemed to be lit up, there was music playing and people dancing – including Susan and Caspian, as well as Lucy and a discontented blackmailer called Trumpkin. The outstanding food stocks had been used up to create a feast and all in attendance seemed to be having a good time.

Pushing past the distressing feeling in her gut, she moved into the crowd of merrymakers. Over to one side she saw that Peter and Edmund were engaged, stood in conversation with Aslan. She was happy to have the opportunity to avoid two out of the three of them and walked off in the opposite direction.

Over the next couple of hours, she ate, she danced and she had a convincingly excellent time. Until Reepicheep cornered her and went into remarkable detail about his new tail and the great wonder that was Aslan. She had ultimately escaped the mouse's clutches, when she found herself grabbed from behind and whirled into Peter's arms.

"If I didn't know any better… I'd say that you have been avoiding me," he said with a smile.

"Really? You – uh – haven't been talking to Trumpkin, have you?"

"No... Why?"

"No reason," she replied.

"So… do you want to dance or go for a walk?" Peter asked her. "I believe that we have something to discuss…"

Buffy shrugged her shoulders, "Discuss?"

"No, you don't. I survived and now you have to tell me the truth… You agreed."

"Yes, but at the time I kind of thought one of us wouldn't be here to discuss it."

"Tough," he answered staring into her eyes. "Make your choice."

She sighed, "If it's not too dark out… a walk might be nice."

He let her go and vanished for a minute or two, when he returned he held a torch in one hand. With his free one, he grabbed hold of her hand and they set off, away from the party goers. They walked in stillness for quite some time before Peter in due course spoke.

"So… are you going to tell me?"

"Peter…"

"Yes or no, Buffy. Do you love me?"

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "No."

"Look me in the eye when you say that," he demanded.

She looked in his eyes and went to speak, at the last minute her eyes darted away from his, "I don't love you."

"You're lying," he told her. "I told you I could tell when you were. Why are you lying to me?"

"Because it doesn't matter anymore. Aslan is here and we will all be going home and never see each other again. Why is it so damn important to know?"

Peter threw down the torch, sending them into darkness and grabbed her by her arms, wanting to shake some sense into her. "Maybe I don't want to live my entire life wondering what might have been. If you did love me or were simply trying to distract me? If you were the love of my life or some catastrophe I was lucky to escape? If my feelings were real and were returned…"

"Pete…"

He pushed her away, "Just leave me be."

As he walked away she grew angry, he got to have his say and bellow at her, well now it was her turn. She stalked up to him and swivelled him around so that he faced her once more. "Where do you get off? It's not always about you or how you feel… Other people have feelings too and they are real and scary. You have no right to just demand answers and… and…" She sank down her knees and tears started to fall. "You were right. Just go away and leave me be."

He knelt down nest to her, "Buffy… I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pushed…"

She sniffled and looked at him, "I do love you. It's real and it scares me to death. I fought so hard against it… it just cannot be."

"You don't know that. Last time we were here, we got to stay until we were adults…"

"And you eventually still had to go home. If we were given that chance… had a life… a family... Wouldn't it just be worse than if we parted now?"

"I don't want to lose you or what we have."

"I don't either."

He pulled her into his arms, "We can work this out… I could look for you in the future."

She looked at him incredulously, "Oh, my mom would love that. A man in his seventies trying to date her seventeen year old daughter…"

"I guess that wasn't my best idea," he admitted ruefully.

"Why does this have to be so hard? What could possibly be the great benefit to having this feeling only to have to lose it in the end?" she asked.

He looked into her green eyes and kissed her as though he was trying to make the pain and the circumstances just fade away. When they in the end broke apart, he rested his forehead against her own as they both attempted to regain control of their uncontrolled emotions.

They sat together for a while and in the end Peter suggested, "We should go back."

"I guess they'll be waiting for us."

He let go and stood up, once he was ready he helped her up to her feet and they walked back to the How, hand-in-hand. When they were almost there he asked her, "Sleep with me?"

"Excuse me?"

Even in the darkness of night you could see Peter's blush, "I mean... sleep next to me. Just sleep…"

"Okay."

When they arrived back the social gathering was still in full-swing, except for one individual, Lucy. She was fast asleep in close proximity to one of the food tables. Buffy watched as Peter tenderly scooped her up and carried her inside the How.

She followed him to the vicinity that he and his siblings had been using to sleep and laid Lucy down. He found himself a spot, lying down and then patted the unfilled space next to him, to which she went willingly. Once she had lain down with him, Peter pulled her into his arms and rested her head upon his chest where they without delay fell asleep.

Waking up in the early hours of the next morning, she found herself still in the identical position she had fallen asleep in and so she just lay there listening to the beating of Peter's heart and thinking about how radically different he was from the previous male she'd had feelings for – and not just the whole vampire thing or the dissimilarity in looks. Angel was never one to really divulge his feelings, keeping them locked up so he could brood over them and Peter… well, he just couldn't suppress or most of the time keep under control his.

She would have simply continued to lay there if it had not been for the giggling. Opening one eye, she could see that Lucy was standing over them with a rather large smile plastered across her face. "Good morning, Lu. Sleep well?"

"Obviously not as good as you…" Lucy replied. "Su is till asleep and so are Caspian and Ed."

Buffy tried to move and found herself thoroughly held in place. So she spent the next few minutes endeavouring to wheedle out from his hold. "He sure has on heck of a grip."

"Once Peter has a hold of something, he doesn't let go. When I was little he had this old teddy bear and I wanted it. He just held on tight and wouldn't give it to me."

"You got it in the end, Lu," Peter's voice drifted up. "Now go away and disturb someone else."

"I hate brothers," Lucy announced but did as he had asked.

"You were rude," Buffy told him.

Peter smiled at her, "So were you… trying to sneak away while I was asleep."

"Sorry, I don't exactly know the manners for waking up with someone."

"Sneaking isn't part of it," he assured her.

"Please tell me that you two still aren't at it," Edmund's sleepy voice drifted over. "I don't want to be sick before breakfast."

"We're not doing anything, Ed," they chorused.

Edmund sat up and stared at them, "Now you are speaking as one… Help! The world as we know it is ending."

"It's times like these I wish I were an only child," Peter mumbled.

"Luckily for me… I am an only child."

Unenthusiastically they broke apart and got up, leaving to join Lucy for breakfast – and were soon followed by Edmund and his hollow stomach. Buffy had to admit she was most impressed when Peter 

managed to take no notice of – for the most part, there was some clenching of teeth – that Susan and Caspian had fallen asleep holding hands.

They ate the leftovers from the feast for breakfast with the Narnians that were up and about and most of the conversation centred on the events of the celebration. Buffy noticed that a particular lion was yet to show his face, but refused to be anxious about what that might mean for all involved.

Peter went an intense pink – an amalgamation of fury and mortification – as Susan and Caspian joined them, still holding hands, at the end of the meal. Buffy took hold of his hand in a gesture of support, but at Lucy's silly laugh she dropped it again and rolled her eyes at the young girl.

Caspian, Peter and Edmund brought up to date the others of what they had discussed with Aslan the previous day about returning to the Telmarine castle. It was agreed upon by nearly everyone that it was good proposition and that as soon as was achievable they – together as a group – would make their way there.

The Narnians and the others had concluded their responsibilities by the first part of afternoon and so Caspian led everyone towards his new castle. When they at long last arrived it was just after nightfall and looking at the daunting structure it brought back some excruciating memories of the night raid and lost friends.

They were welcomed at the entrance gateway and led up to the castle. As they were allocated rooms, Buffy noticed that whoever had chosen where to put people had the females down one end and the males down the other – which she thought was humorous, although certain other people did not.

Her room was pleasant – considering what the outside of the place looked like – and contained all the essential furniture, like a double bed. A few moments later a woman strode in took some measurements and left, perplexing Buffy until a few minutes after that a maid came in with a few night dresses and a selection of gowns which were hung up. Thanking her, she changed into one of the night dresses, climbed into bed and promptly fell asleep.

End Part

**Lyrics**:

LeAnn Rimes/Bon Jovi – Til We Ain't Strangers Anymore


	17. Duties, Stories and a Ball

**Chapter Sixteen: Duties, Stories and a Ball**

_/ Would it be beautiful?  
Or just a beautiful disaster/_

When she awoke in the morning, Buffy was more rested and more bewildered than she had been in days. It took her a few moments to realise that she was at the Telmarine castle and that they had won their big battle. The best thing was that for the first time in a week she was unaccompanied – no more snoring dwarfs or nocturnal emissions from Minotaurs – and that she was in a genuine bed and not on the floor.

A perfunctory knock sounded and in walked Peter, causing her to quickly pull the covers up over her head. "Peter? What are you doing her?"

"I told Susan and Lucy that I'd wake you up."

"Well… I'm awake."

"And I am curious," he muttered.

Buffy peeked over the top of her blanket, "About what?"

"What you have got on under that blanket…"

"Want to see?"

Peter swallowed nervously, "Maybe I should just wait outside until you're ready…"

"Okay," she replied dropping the covers and jumping out of the bed. She didn't even make an attempt to hold in the amusement at the expression on Peter's face when he saw the night dress – trust a male to presume that a girl would sleep naked in a strange castle.

"That was not funny," he told her walking out into the hallway.

"Yes it was," she yelled at his back.

She went over to the closet and looked at the dresses that she had been given. They were all made of the utmost quality materials and all in shades of green and gold. Quickly she selected a green one and dressed, once again finding that she was not capable of fastening the corset-like ties on the back of it.

She stuck her head out of the door, "Pete… would you come in for a minute?"

"Yes," he replied walking through the door.

She turned around and showed him her dilemma, "Help!"

He came over and fastened the ties, "How did you ever get dressed without me?"

When they came down the stairs and entered the dining room, each person was there all ready and waiting for them with the exception of Caspian – who had apparently been whisked away by the professor and some of his new advisors. They ate the delicious food that was put out for them and then waited with the others for Caspian's return.

He did so a little while later with some information or the Kings and Queens of old and he included Buffy right along with them – who knows why. His proclamation was that his advisors thought that the 

Narnians and the Telmarines would benefit form a victory parade and a ball – to see the new and the old royalty cooperating and the so-called heroes of the war.

Everybody, with one exception, enthusiastically agreed. Buffy just had to say no way. She was not royalty, or a hero and she did not do parades. When they raised objections, she pointed out that just because she would not be in it with them, it did not mean that she would not watch them parade through the streets or attend the ball.

As they all dispersed to go and get prepared, she sighed in reprieve and used the unanticipated time alone to indulge her inquisitiveness and investigate the castle. She wandered the passageways and found many rooms that had the exact same purpose – there were two libraries and four different garden rooms. It was then that she found her way to the professor's study…

"Buffy, isn't it?" the older man asked without even looking up.

"Uh – yes."

He finally looked at her, "Why are you not parading through the streets?"

"I'm not exactly interested in parading anywhere," she told him. "Besides… it's their time to stand out and not mine. I just did what I was told too and nothing more."

The professor smiled at her, "Have you ever read the old stories? There are several here about High King Peter…"

"Really?" her interest was strengthened.

"Here," he said patting an empty chair next to him. "Let me show you them."

Buffy spent the majority of the morning and afternoon with the professor, listening to and reading the tales of old – more than ever enjoying the insight and blackmail information she had gained on a particular High King. When it was time, she and the professor made their way to a nearby balcony and watched their friends' parade through the crowded street and soak up the limelight.

After it was over she bid the professor goodbye and returned to her room. Hanging on the door to the closet, she saw that a maid had selected a gown for her to wear that night; it was appealing – gold in colour with green embroidery and gauze like skirting over the bottom of the dress.

With nothing better to do she lay down on the double bed and contemplated how to spend the rest of her day. After all it did not take forever to dress and there were more than a number of hours left in which to do so. Instead she relaxed, thinking about all of the titbits of information she had gathered and as she did so she drifted off to sleep.

She awoke when she heard the click that indicated that her door was opening, but she remained motionless, lulling the intruder into a fictitious sense of security. When she could sense that they were almost on top of her location, she reached up grabbing them around the throat and flipping them over her and onto the bed, finishing up with her straddling them.

She looked down and saw who it was, "Peter?"

"Hello!"

"What are you doing now?"

Peter looked up at her, "I was just – uh – coming to wake you up… with a kiss."

"Oh, well… that was sweet of you," she replied turning pink. "Sorry I – uh – attacked you."

"It's fine."

Buffy smiled briefly, "Maybe I should get off…"

Peter rolled them over and pulled her underneath him, "I think you should stay right here."

He kissed her passionately and she responded with desperation that was new to her, both of them pressed their bodies more firmly against each other and she gasped as his fingers trailed up her bare leg towards… That's when they were interrupted by a knock and Lucy's voice drifting through the door.

"Buffy… are you okay?"

Peter rolled off her and she sat up, "I'm fine, Lu. I was just taking a nap."

Lucy went away, but Peter made no move to recommence their previous positions or endeavour. It was very nearly like he was feeling shame about his behaviour. After some of the things she had read about that day, maybe he just wasn't all that interested in her that way, despite his claim of love.

So she chose the safe route, "Aren't you going to get ready for tonight?"

Peter at long last looked at her again, "Do I have too?"

"Yes."

"But I don't even like **him**…"

"You do," she told him. "If you didn't it wouldn't bother you so much about him and Susan."

"Maybe you're right… but she's my little sister."

"And she's always going to be, no matter who or what comes into both of your lives."

"When did you get so smart?"

Buffy laughed, "It has to be the Narnian air. Back home I am not known for the power of my brain cells…"

"I doubt that," he told her. He got off of the bed and said, "I'll come back to escort you down."

"Peter…"

"Yes?"

"Before you go… the dress…"

The ball had been going on for more than three hours and even though she'd had fun at the start, she was tremendously sick of eating, making small talk and dancing with the eight million Telmarines who had heard about her battle skills and wished to see if they transferred to the bedroom. Peter, Edmund and Caspian had disappeared ages ago and had left Susan and Lucy to act as hostesses.

When the three of them in due course returned, they all looked worse for wear. Peter approached her and it was almost immediately evident why this was so. The three of them were drunk and Buffy hypothesized that some obsolete macho Narnian male bonding ritual must have occurred.

Peter kept stroking her hair, "You look **so** pretty…"

"You look drunk."

"N-no…" he answered. "W-wine loves me."

"I think that's the other way round, big boy."

She ended up helping him to his room, but halfway there he decided to pass out and she determined it easier to just dump him in her own room. After all it was not like she had not slept next to him before and no one was going to be any the wiser anyway. She put him on the bed and quickly disrobed and put on her night dress, climbing in next to the big booze hound.

Hours later she was still awake, powerless to relax her mind enough to fall asleep – a problem Mr snore-happy did not have. Images of earlier rushed through her mind at a mile a minute and she was torn between ignoring it and waking him up to see what condition he was in.

Suddenly she noticed the snoring had stopped and that Peter was moving about, she stayed still and let him work out where he was. He rolled over to face her and mumbled, "Am I in your room?"

"Yes."

"Good," he answered, snuggling closer to her. "That means I don't have to come down the passageway in the middle of the night and sneak in."

"What?"

Peter still looked haggard, but he was smiling like normal. "I was going to make a move…"

"A move?"

"I have been very patient. I didn't do anything when you were changing in the treasure hold or naked in the river or wearing my shirt while you were so wet that it clung to **everything**. I just sat there and tortured myself. But earlier…well, you seemed to be interested…"

"Peter?"

"What?"

"Shut up and kiss me all ready."

Peter looked a little bit shocked, more or less like he had expected her to rebuff him or something along those lines. He pulled her into his arms fusing his lips with her own, showing her how he actually felt about her. She closed her eyes as his lips left her own and made their way down the side of her face to the exceptionally susceptible spot under her ear lobe, causing her to gasp.

As he continued his downward exploration and started to pull her night dress aside, slight panic took over. "Peter?"

"Ummm…"

"I… i-it's just… I've never…"

He pulled away from her and looked into her eyes, "I… there's something I need to tell you. When I was King… before…"

"I sort of know all ready," she told him. "I read the stories about you earlier…"

"You did?"

"It's just if you did even half of what they said you did… What do you want with me?"

He kissed her, "Back then… they didn't mean anything. It was a sort of recreation."

"Right… Am I just recreation?"

"Never," he admitted. "You matter more to me than anything."

"So I'm special…"

He stroked her hair back from her face, "You always have been to me. If you are not entirely sure about this, I can wait…"

"You might be able too, but I can't," she replied pulling his lips back to hers.

She felt his hands move to the fastenings at the front of her night dress, loosening them with practiced ease to allow himself better access to what lay underneath. In return she undid the buttons along the shoulder of the dress tunic he was still wearing from earlier. Her hands were trembling so awfully that she could only just complete the task.

Peter pulled back slightly again, "Buffy, we can stop. You don't have to…"

"I want too," she whispered back. "I'm just a little nervous. What if I disappoint you?"

"That can't happen."

"How can you know…?"

He grabbed her face between his hands and forced her uncertain green eyes to meet his positive blue, "Because I love you."

"I love you too."

Peter pulled off his shirt and tossed it onto the floor before kissing her again and lowering her down the bed. She could feel his weight on top of her imprisoning her between him and the mattress; meeting his eyes again she wordlessly vowed to go with the sensations and her instincts and to try to put ineffective thoughts from her head.

With his lips stilled inches from her own, Buffy wrapped her arms around his neck and brought their lips together once more. His lips began to roam again and she enthusiastically gave herself over to the sensations Peter was creating within her this time. Not satisfied with being still, her hands roamed his muscular shoulders and arms and then retraced her path. Touching his neck, his ear and ending with her in due course threading her fingers through his hair.

His mouth travelled down, his hand moving the night dress to the side and licked one of Buffy's nipples, satisfied at its more or less instantaneous pebbling and the small whimper that erupted from her. His mouth closed completely around it, his tongue teasing it until she was withering against him and then he went to work on its twin.

His other hand caressed its way down her body until he found the edging of the distasteful night dress and investigated underneath it. Running his hand up her thigh, he was shocked to find that she was wearing no underwear and slipped his fingers inside of her. He stroked her gently, his fingers moving easily due to the fact she was already slick with desire. As she bucked beneath him he applied a little pressure and a relentless rhythm to her nub, causing her to explode and let out a shriek of pleasure.

She was a little bewildered as he climbed off of the bed and so she sat up ready to make an objection, until she realised that he was simply removing the rest of his clothing. This encouraged her voyeuristic predisposition, watching closely as he removed his pants and underwear. She was more than a little shocked when she saw his erection; it looked nothing like the naughty pictures that she and Willow had looked up on the internet.

When Peter came back to her, she prepared for his kiss and was disenchanted when it did not take place. Instead he lifted the night dress off of her and tossed it somewhere far away from the bed and her reach. Embarrassed to be unclothed in front of him, she tried to grab the sheets only to stop when he returned to the bed.

He stretched out next to her, the skin to skin contact making her quiver from a combination of nerves and anticipation. They kissed, exploring each others mouths and she nibbled bashfully on his lips. In this new position she could feel a heaviness and a warmth against her leg where he rested against her.

Peter moved over her, kneeling between her thighs and parted her with his fingers. She began to be aware of something much thicker and longer than his fingers pushing slowly inside her, stretching her. It was unpleasant, but not intolerable, as he continued to thrust his way inside.

Putting his weight onto his arms, he moved back up her body, kissing her and whispering softly. "This will hurt."

"It's all right."

He pressed through the barrier that signified her innocence and she struggled for breath at the pain – although she had been warned, it was still slightly surprising - and bit down on his shoulder, leaving a wound of her own on him. When he was altogether inside he stilled and allowed her to get adjust to him and to his invasion.

After a few minutes he began to move within her, thrusting in and out. To help her with the rhythm, Peter made certain to go gradually, but after a while he was the one struggling to keep up. She was before long a absolute contributor, enthusiastic and inquisitive and by the time Peter was feeling the recognizable tingle that signified his own release, she had already come once more and as he experienced his, she received another.

He rolled off of her and onto his back, moments later pulling her back into his arms as she snuggled in lovingly to him, just before he fell asleep. She was unquestionably contented and taking into consideration that he was now asleep, she could safely take for granted that she had exhausted him – for now. Closing her eyes she put her head onto his chest and fell asleep to the beating of his heart.

End Part

**Lyrics:**

Kelly Clarkson – Beautiful Disaster


	18. Savin’ You, Savin’ Me

**Chapter Seventeen: Savin' You, Savin' Me**

_/And never knowing  
what could have been/_

Buffy had the strangest awareness when she woke up the next morning, opening up her eyes she realised what it was. It was the combination of waking up naked next to someone and having used that certain someone as your pillow. All of that brought back the memories of her preceding night's activities and she blushed crimson. She shifted to some extent and looking up at Peter noticed that not only was he wide awake, but that he was staring at her.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," he whispered to her. "How did you sleep?"

"Pretty good," she replied still looking at him. "How about you?"

He smiled at her, "I have a headache from the wine, but other than that I've never been happier."

As she laughed, he pulled her up his body and she automatically shifted her leg to straddle his hips. "You – uh – do feel happy…"

Peter reached up and pushed a strand of hair back behind her ear, "Happy is not quite how I'd describe that…" She shifted an adequate amount to apply a little bit of pressure to his most susceptible area. "You are a witch!"

"No… just your everyday, run of the mill vampire slayer."

He kissed her, "Are you not tender?"

"The wonder of slayer healing, I'm fine."

"Perfect," he answered guiding himself home with a single thrust.

Peter left her room an hour later, determined to steal back to his own room before the others awoke and found them together. Buffy did think that it was adorable that he was concerned about her reputation, but at the same time it exasperated her. She was not some damsel in distress, she was a vampire slayer and if she wanted to spend the night with someone then she was not going to be embarrassed of that fact.

Indiscriminately choosing a dress to wear without even attentively looking at it, she threw it on and marched over to the small table and mirror and began to fix her hair. Torn between the yearning to be girly and look pleasant and the longing to just chuck it up in a ponytail and not bother with anything, she sat there for a good ten minutes with no resolution in sight.

In the end she left her hair down and loose and asked the stressed out maid to tie her into the dress when she came to make up the bed. When she in due course ventured down the stairs and into the dining room she found only Lucy and Edmund there. Serving herself some food, she sat down with them and began to eat.

Without warning and with a lot of food flying out of his mouth, Edmund mumbled to her, "Aslan asked to see you."

"Me?"

"Yes…"

Lucy chimed in, although with a lot more refinement than her brother, "He's speaking with Caspian at the moment."

It was at that split second – like he magically appeared at the sound of his name – that Caspian entered the room, a confounded look upon his face. He looked directly at her and nodded an acknowledgement, "Good morning, Buffy. Aslan is waiting in the main courtyard… when you are ready."

Buffy sighed and pushed aside her plate, "I guess I'd better get this over with."

She left the others to eat and made her way through the castle to the courtyard where Aslan sat waiting. She took a minute upon arrival to equally move forwards past the feeling the lion invoked within her and to also scrutinize him. Regrettably Buffy could not percieve what he was up to, as he did nothing but sit there.

"Are you going to come out here and talk to me or hide in the doorway all day?" Aslan asked her.

Buffy came out of her hiding place and walked into the courtyard, "How did you know I was there?"

"You are not the only one with well-developed senses, little slayer," he replied. "You have been avoiding me…"

"A little," she admitted.

"Come, walk with me now… I have things to explain."

They walked for a time in stillness and in due course wound up on a grassy hummock just outside of the castle gates. Wildflowers grew in great quantity in a myriad of colours and fragrances, making it virtually seem as though it was a sanctioned garden. Aslan led her to a large shady tree and motioned for her to sit down next to him.

"What is going on?" she asked not allowing him to say a word.

"The time has come for you to return home."

"But… I never got to do anything. The Oracles told me to save the Pevensies but they were more than capable of fighting their own battles – and in reality have. The only person I saved was Caspian…"

Aslan shook his head, "Sometimes saving someone involves more than fighting in a battle."

"I don't get it…"

"You will one day," he assured her. "There were many things I did not anticipate when I brought you all here. Peter's and your relationship was one of them, as was Susan and Caspian. The issue is that you are all meant for different things… for other people. Whatever you have found treasure it, but do not hold on. Use it for the future to guide your relationships."

"Other things, I get," she told him. "I'm a slayer and I have a Hellmouth to safeguard, but other people…"

"You will return home and await the vampire… make the best of the situation."

She shook her head and blinked back the tears that threatened to fall, "I don't want to make the **best** of any situation. It wouldn't be fair to anyone…"

"Do not cry," Aslan told her. "You are not the only one to hear this news."

She looked at him and realised something, "You're sending them home too, aren't you? They are so certain that you'll let them stay here."

"As I told young Lucy, nothing happens the same way twice."

"But... Susan and Caspian… I know I live in a completely different time, but Su has stayed in Narnia before. Why can't you let them have a chance to…?"

"Caspian is meant for another and like her brother Susan must learn to live in her own world. I am sorry but four must return to England."

"And that's it… You proclaim it to be so and it is. It's not fair!"

"Life is not always so," he told her. "You may go and if you see Susan or Peter send them to me."

Buffy glared at Aslan as she rose to her feet. "I know life isn't always fair, believe me. However what you are doing is nothing but being merciless, just playing with everyone's lives and hearts." Then she walked away back towards the castle, leaving the great lion alone under the tree.

An hour later Peter found her up on one of the castle's turrets, just staring off into space. She knew the moment that he stepped out of the doorway and came up behind her, but it was just easier to look at the view over Narnia than to face him.

"Buffy?"

"Peter."

"Aslan…"

She turned around and looked at him, "I know what Aslan said. I'm going home. You're going home. We're all leaving and we're never going to see each other again."

He pulled her into a hug, "Ignore Aslan. Come back with me…"

"I don't belong there."

"Yes, you do," he answered. "You belong with me. From the moment I saw you I knew that."

"Peter…"

"If you go home, how am I supposed to go on without you?"

"Aslan says you'll be fine."

Peter pulled back and kissed her, "Just tell me this… If there was a way for you to come with me, would you?"

"In a heartbeat."

Outside of the castle a large crowd of Telmarines and Narnians had gathered and Buffy could feel their eyes on her and Peter as they moved to where his siblings and Caspian were standing and took their positions. Caspian began making a speech attempting not to show his people how much he was hurting. "Narnia belongs to the Narnians, just as it does to any man. Any Telmarine's who want to stay and live in peace are welcome to, but for any of you who wish, Aslan will return you to the land of our forefathers."

A man in the crowd responded, "It's been generations since we left Telmar."

"We're not referring to Telmar. Your ancestors were seafaring brigands – pirates run aground on an island. There they found a cave, a rare chasm that brought them here from their world - the same world as our Kings and Queens. It is a good place for any who wish to make a new start," Aslan proclaimed.

"I will go. I will accept the offer," the general said moving to the front of the crowd.

"So will we," Caspian's aunt Prunaprismia said bringing her father and her infant son with her.

"Because you have spoken first, your future in that world shall be good," Aslan told them before he breathed magic on them.

Aslan then turned to the tree planted at the edge of the courtyard and breathed magic onto that, turning into a portal to the world of the Kings and Queens of old. The General and others walked through and disappeared from view.

"How do we know he is not leading us to our deaths," someone screamed, panic evident in their voice.

Reepicheep, ever the dependable servant stepped forward. "Sire! If my example can be of any service, I will take eleven mice through with no delay."

Peter shot Susan and Buffy a glance that Caspian scarcely caught sight of, he might have shrugged it off if Susan's face had not crumpled with tears again and Buffy had not turned away and refused to meet his eyes.

"We'll go," Peter volunteered.

"W-we will?" Edmund questioned curiously, grabbing hold of Lucy's hand.

"Come on, our time's up. After all we're not really needed here anymore," Peter told everyone sadly.

He walked over to Caspian and handed him his sword, his most cherished possession. Caspian looked into his onetime rival's eyes and noted the astonishing despondency. "I will look after it until you return."

"I'm afraid that's just it. We're not coming back," Susan answered her tears still falling.

"We're not?" Lucy asked fearfully. "But what about Buffy?"

"You two are! At least I think he means you two," Peter corrected, attempting to calm Lucy and deflect her attention away from his love.

Lucy looked at Aslan, "But why? Did they do something wrong?"

"Quite the opposite, dear one. But all good things have their time. Your brother and sister have learned what they can from this world. Now it is time for them to live in their own."

"It's all right, Lu. It's not how I thought it would be, but it's all right. One day, you'll see too."

"But… Buffy?"

Aslan finally answered, "Buffy will return to her own time."

Lucy and Edmund began to tearfully say goodbye to their friends, as Susan was doing with Caspian. Buffy moved over to Peter, not knowing what to say she simply kissed him. Their kiss seemed to go on and on, her heart breaking a little bit more with each passing second, she never even noticed when the tears started to fall.

They pulled apart and she whispered, "I love you."

Peter used his thumb to wipe away her tears, "I love you too."

Edmund grabbed a hold of him, "Come on, Pete. It's time to go home."

Edmund and Lucy pulled Peter through the doorway; his eyes never left hers until he disappeared. Buffy choked back a sob and looked at Aslan, determined to tell him exactly what she thought about him. Instead she saw something reflected in his eyes and what he said to her before returned, _'Four must return to England.' _He had never said which four it had to be and hoped blossomed for the briefest of moments.

She bent down to Aslan's level, "Four have to return?"

He nodded, "Yes."

"If I go to England, can Su stay here?"

The great lion smiled, "I knew that you would figure my words out eventually."

Buffy grabbed her friend just as she was about to step through and pulled her aside. "Su, if you could stay here, would you? I want the truth; don't think about what you think I want you to say. Just the truth…"

"The truth," Susan looked over Buffy's shoulder at Caspian. "I would stay."

"Good."

"But…"

Buffy dragged her over to Aslan and the three of the spoke, perplexing all of the population surrounding them and making them wonder what was going on. Then all of a sudden the two girls hugged and Susan whispered something to Buffy, before running back to Caspian and throwing herself into his arms.

"It's time for you to go," Aslan told her. "You've just saved one… now only three more to go."

"How will I…"

"When the time comes, you will know what to do."

As the words sank in, she moved to the gateway and with one last wave at Susan and Caspian, she walked through and found herself once again in the London Underground. Looking down she saw that her attractive gown had been replaced with that revolting school uniform. The train whistled and she jumped aboard seconds before the doors closed and the train began to depart the station.

Making her way through the carriages, she in the long run found Lucy, Edmund and Peter and she slowly made her way towards them, to some extent anxious about what their reaction would be. She stopped when their conversation became clear and held back on revealing her presence to eavesdrop.

"Pete, are you okay?" Edmund asked concerned.

"Not really, Ed."

"Ed, leave him alone," Lucy said.

"Where's Su?" Peter asked suddenly, looking up and scanning the carriage for his sister and instead spotted her. "Buffy?"

She came towards them, "Sorry I'm late."

Buffy had only just expressed the words before Peter had pulled her into his embrace and Lucy and Edmund joined in the cuddle. The two younger Pevensies pulled back after a moment and stared at the couple.

Edmund leaned over to Lucy, "Now we're in for it."

Lucy looked at Buffy, "Do you know where Su is?"

Buffy looked at them all a little uncomfortably, "About that… I can explain…"

End Part

**Lyrics:**

Rascal Flatts – What Hurts The Most

**Notes:**

Guess what it didn't end…

This fic is turning out to be radically different than I first envisaged and has grown exponentially. So there is plenty more chapters to come… If you can stand anymore that is?


	19. Alone Time

**Chapter Eighteen: Alone Time**

_/If we can love forever  
that won't be long enough for me/_

The room was at long last soundless, as the two lovers lay tangled in the sheets of the king-sized bed, desire replete for now, but as it had for most of the night the need would return in full force. These weekends were few and far between for Buffy and Peter due to expenses, Peter's university studies and the very real possibility of pregnancy. Although sometimes their reciprocal need overrode all reason and they came together.

After they had returned from Narnia, Peter had arranged with Professor Kirke for him to say that Buffy was his American niece – which he had done enthusiastically, for he was a friend to all who were friends of Narnia. The professor had arranged with Mr and Mrs Pevensie for Buffy to stay with them during the term in exchange for tutoring Peter to get him ready for university.

Now, two years later and school long since over, Buffy was still living at the Pevensie residence, rooming with Lucy and making herself an indispensable part of the family. Everyone was so fond of her that even before she and Peter had confessed their feelings for each other to his parents, they had hinted that she would make an excellent edition to the family.

Lying in the motel room bed, her head pillowed on Peter's chest she was contented to just be there with him. She did still wholeheartedly miss her family and her friends back in Sunnydale, but she did not and could not be remorseful about her decision. However she could not help but wonder if she had been removed from existence to them, as Susan had been here – she, Peter, Lucy and Edmund were the only ones who remembered that there had been a fourth Pevensie child.

Peter stirred awake beneath her and kissed the top of her head, "Good morning, Mrs Smith."

"Are we Smith? I thought we were Jones this time."

Peter laughed, "Either way…"

Buffy slithered up his body and felt more of him _'wake up'_, "I love you."

"I love you too," Peter replied looking into her eyes as their lips met. "What brought this on?"

"Just thinking…"

His hand slipped down and found its way into her feminine place, causing her squirm against him. "Was it about this?"

"Now it is!"

"Good enough," he told her, nipping playfully at her neck with his teeth.

He flipped her onto her back, raining kisses - both gentle and not-so gentle - down her body taking his time to investigate each and every part of her. He nipped at her uncovered hip and then moved down to her nest of curls and placed his tongue to the inner edge of her lips and licked along it a number of times before thrusting his tongue in-between them and exploring her deeper regions. Knowing that this was driving her wild, spurned him on more - his tongue moved within her, in and out, up and down slowly exploring, tasting and savouring it.

Peter brought her to the threshold of orgasm before removing himself from her, hearing her grief-stricken whimper as she lost contact with him. He came back to her leisurely, starting off by suckling her exquisite toes and then dropping kisses as he moved up her tiny body. Sensing her requirement he slowed his pace even more wanting to become as necessary as breathing to her and he was stunned when his tiny lover tossed him onto his back, so that she could have her own way.

Not wasting a moment of her advantage, Buffy straddled Peter and guided his erection into her aching centre. She stilled the second he filled her savouring the feeling of oneness that it always brought. She could feel his eagerness and refused to give ground, she set the pace and she was in no hurry.

In the end even she could no longer stand the unhurried pace she had established, she needed to go faster and achieve the completion that they both highly prized. The pace increased and as she neared orgasm, Buffy toppled straight over the edge into bliss the very instant she felt his completion begin.

A couple of hours later they were sitting on the bed and sharing the solitary room service meal that they could manage to pay for and without a sound cursed budgets. Buffy – in weird and wonderful sense o f modesty - had put Peter's shirt on over her naked body and he had slipped back into his trousers when he'd had to answer the door. It was when all's said and done the first time in more or less twenty-four hours that either one had put clothing on.

"Do you miss it?" Buffy asked him suddenly. "I mean, Narnia. Cause sometimes I do and I know it's silly because I hardly spent any time there…"

"That's because you met me there. The greatest High King of Narnia to ever reign," he joked, causing her to punch him frivolously on the arm. Out of the blue his tone changed completely to one almost of melancholy, "It's still a part of me. I do miss it and Su…"

She grabbed his hand, "Peter…"

"Why couldn't… didn't she say goodbye?"

"That was my fault. I was so occupied feeling sorry for myself that I just about didn't figure out Aslan's cryptic clue until you had already gone through."

"It wasn't your fault. At least she gave you the messages to pass on to us. It was something…"

"I'm still sorry…"

Peter put the empty dish on the bedside table and pulled her into his arms, "As much as I love and miss my sister… I am glad that she got the chance for happiness, just like we did."

Resting her head on his shoulder she asked, "Then what's wrong?"

"Lucy and Edmund."

"What about them?"

"They get to go back to Narnia. They'll get to see Susan and Caspian again. To see Aslan…"

"Uh – Pete?"

"What?"

"You told me that last time when it had been one year here, it was thirteen hundred in Narnia…"

"So?"

"Well… it's been two years here. Doesn't that mean that it's been something close to two and a half thousand years in Narnia?"

A strange look came over his face and he suddenly laughed, rolling her down onto the bed beneath him. "This is great; they won't get to see them either. Now I feel better."

"It's always nice to see what a wonderful and caring big brother you are."

Peter kissed her and started to leisurely – torturously – undo the buttons of the shirt, tickling her with his fingertips as he did so. "Buffy..."

"Again?"

"What can I say… the High King is always looking for territory to invade."

"Are you going to sleep on me?" Peter asked her a short time later.

"Absolutely, you wore me out."

He held her close, "I thought you were supposed to be the slayer. You know full of energy… plenty of stamina…"

Buffy giggled, "Yes, well you're insatiable and even though I have super powers, it doesn't mean I am not a mere girl…"

"Who can beat up monsters…"

"True, but even super heroes need sleep."

"We have all night to sleep," he whined.

"We have all night to do all sorts of things," she told him. "Sleep time now."

They lay there silence for quite some time before Peter spoke again, "Buffy…"

"Ummm…"

"Marry me?"

She tensed at the question, it was not the first time he had asked and it was not the first time she had responded this way. "Peter…"

"You say that you love me. You will make love with me, sleep with me… Why won't you marry me?"

"I want you to finish school."

"I can get married and finish, lots of others do…"

She looked at him, "We both know that if we get married you will never get the chance to finish. It will just be dead-end jobs and babies. I want so much better for you."

"There is nothing better for me than you."

She kissed him, "I do love you."

"I know," he told her. "Speaking of babies…"

"If there's one after this weekend," she replied. "Then you're stuck with me."

"I want to be stuck with you," he answered obstinately.

After a while she said something to him, "I have an idea…"

Peter looked at her suspiciously, probably remembering her last idea and what had happened. "What idea?"

"I agree to marry you…"

"This idea, I like."

"But no wedding until after you finish university…"

"Or?"

"Or if something happens…"

He pushed her out of the way, jumped up off of the bed and entered the bathroom, leaving Buffy to speculate about what she had done this time to provoke that response. She had thought it was a good compromise. When he came back, he was holding a ring box and got down on one knee – naked – and she could not help but express amusement at the absurdness of the situation.

"Nice. Here I am baring my heart and soul…"

"That's not the only thing you're baring."

"Cute, Buffy… very cute. I am trying to be romantic here."

"Come back to bed!"

"Traditionally…"

Buffy smiled at him, "Since when are we traditional?"

Peter got back into the bed and looked at her, "Now what?"

"Ask me."

He opened the box and revealed the most beautiful sapphire and diamond ring she had ever seen. Looking into her eyes, he asked, "Buffy Anne Summers, I love you. Will you marry me?"

"Yes."

Peter placed the ring onto her finger and whispered, "This ring was my great-grandmother's engagement ring."

"How did you…"

"I told my parents that I was planning to propose. They were tremendously obliging; anyone would think that they actually wanted you as a daughter."

She shook her head, "You were that sure I'd say yes?"

"No, just hopeful."

A look came over her face, "Your parents don't know that we…"

"No, I told them that I planned to take you out to dinner while you were in town visiting your **friends**."

"So I can wear this home?"

"Buffy, if you don't… my mother may just accost you."

End Part

**Lyrics:**

Trisha Yearwood – Where Your Road Leads


	20. Eustace

**Chapter Nineteen: Eustace**

_/The water, is calling out your name,  
No you're not insane,  
It's whispering your name/_

To say that every person - who mattered - was delighted over Buffy and Peter's engagement was unquestionably an understatement. In the two months since they had announced it **officially** to the family, Peter's mother had been in full on preparation mode. It did not make a difference how far in the future the actual wedding might be, Helen Pevensie was going to be organized.

Everytime she managed to catch Buffy and/or Peter unaccompanied – or together - she started talking about dresses, guests, churches and menus. Fortuitously for Peter he was away at university and only home for a number of weekends and holidays, poor Buffy had to live with the wedding planner extraordinaire. So she had taken to spending copious amounts of time in the small room she shared with Lucy to circumvent unintentionally offending her future mother-in-law by tearing up her planning book.

So as you would expect it came as a bit of a blow for Helen when Peter's father – Daniel – announced that he had been offered a lecture tour of America, he had accepted on their behalf and that they would be gone for at least three months. Buff was for a short time relived at the unanticipated reprieve. At least that was until Helen made it her undertaking to convince her to join them, telling her it would give them an abundance of planning time.

It took a quantity of convincing, but in due course Buffy managed to persuade her that it would be a much improved alternative for her to stay behind and take care of the house and Lucy and Edmund. In fact, even though Daniel had unhesitatingly agreed with her Helen did not, until Peter pointed out he could be at home spending time preparing for his exams rather than going to the professor's for tutoring.

The night before they were scheduled to leave, Helen took Buffy to the side and went over all of her instructions for while she was away – all that she had all ready written out and left for Buffy in enormous detail. Then she decided to give her a good talking too, one that was to mortify a certain vampire slayer for all of eternity.

Buffy understood that it was not everyday that your future mother-in-law gave you the birds and the bees conversation, complete with the words _'although it is not always the most pleasant experience, you just need to lie there and let them do what is necessary.' _If that speech wasn't bad enough it was followed by the insinuation that she should make an effort to seduce Peter because otherwise – if he was anything like his father – it may be years until the wedding occurs.

Unfortunately all the **talk** did for Buffy was give her an inopportune insight into Peter's conception, more than ever since all the rest was a moot point as they were by now fairly active in that way. Also Buffy was the one with plans to make Peter wait for the wedding to take place and not the other way around, if it had been up to him they would have been married without more ado following his first proposal on her eighteenth birthday.

After dinner that night, Peter and Buffy went for a stroll. During this Buffy did not carry out a full patrol, it in actual fact wasn't worth her time or exertion since she had done her weekly one the night before. So she simply enjoyed her time alone with her fiancé and was knocked for six when he pulled her into the bushes for some clandestine smooches.

They were very nearly back at home when Buffy at long last told Peter about the enthralling conversation she'd had beforehand with his mother. As she made known certain details, she watched him become ashen and tried to feel a little remorse over shocking the poor boy over his mother's insinuations – plus another fact or two.

The house was in darkness when they arrived back there; no more than one small lamp had been left burning for them. Rather than hastening the twosome on to their separate beds, it sanctioned them a few additional minutes – to safely – exchange a few more kisses and caresses before separating for the night.

Early on the next morning Buffy was receiving one last cooking lesson from Helen, when ultimately the Pevensie siblings and Daniel came down the stairs. Buffy bashfully served them her for the most part successful – as expected there was a few mistakes – pancakes and joined the family, taking the unfilled seat next to Peter.

The group of them ate breakfast in comparative stillness – with Peter squeezing Buffy's knee under the table – until Eustace's parents showed up to take Helen and Daniel away. There were hugs and tears as the parents left them to go off on their own journey, but as you would expect after it was over things returned for the most part to normal. An inopportune side-effect saw Eustace left with the remaining Pevensies and Buffy until his parents returned – which if they had any sense would be years.

All of the Pevensie's hated their cousin Eustace, but Buffy had no difficulty with him – well little difficulty with him anyway. He was at all times well behaved, well-mannered and amiable with her. Of course that was because he had a little crush on her and had even suggested that if anything were to happen to Peter that he would be happy to step into his shoes – which was creepy coming from someone his age.

However as soon as his parents had headed off, Eustace placed himself at her side and persistently glared at Peter. It was not a comfortable state of affairs for anyone and she at long last had to implore Lucy to take Eustace somewhere before either she or Peter was required to exterminate him.

Providentially for Eustace, Lucy was a compassionate character. Lucy and Edmund took him upstairs to show him some of Lucy's most recent creations. Since returning from Narnia the last time, Lucy had been infatuated with drawing and painting, everything she did was a scene or person from Narnia. There was – in Buffy's estimation – some tremendously excellent ones of Aslan, Trumpkin, some faun called Tumnus and one of Susan and Caspian together.

Nevertheless the harmony and silence were not to continue... Just as she and Peter were unwinding, her head resting her head on his shoulder, the screaming and shouting occurred. Buffy sighed and checked the time and realised it had come to pass in record time; it customarily took a bit longer than ten minutes for them to declare war on each other. She and Peter exchanged looks of acquiescence before they headed up the stairs to see what the matter was this time.

Knocking on the door of the room that she and Lucy were at this time sharing, she could still hear the hullabaloo going on at the rear the door. Giving up the deception of good manners, she threw open the door and found Eustace and Edmond more or less at blows and Lucy in tears.

Buffy rushed over to Lucy, as Peter glared at Eustace. "What is going on here? What did you do, Scrubb?"

"Why is it always me?"

Hugging the young girl soothingly, she asked Lucy what had happened, but instead Edmund answered. "**He** told Lucy that she was rubbish at art and should give attention to learning to be a lady or she would end up an old maid. So I was about to hit to him…"

"Well… it is true," Eustace argued.

Buffy turned her full-force slayer glower on the young boy, "That was despicable and uncalled for."

"Eustace…" Peter began furiously, but in true King fashion paused for a moment and shook it off to speak in a composed tone. "You need to learn to think before you speak and take into account other people's feelings. It is a incredulity that you have not been beaten to a pulp by now…"

"I'll do it," Edmund volunteered. "I will make the sacrifice."

It was then that Buffy experienced it. It was something familiar, yet she could not quite place the sensation, nipping at the periphery of her senses and teasing her. Shaking it off, she endeavoured to return her concentration back to the circumstances in the room, before the boys resorted to violent behaviour instead of diplomacy to settle it.

"I do not see what the big deal is. It is an ugly picture done by a…"

"Eustace, you do not want to finish that sentence," Buffy told him. "And here I thought that you were a nice, polite boy…"

"I'm sorry, Buffy."

She looked at him, "The apology goes to Lucy."

"Sorry…"

Lucy sighed, "He doesn't mean it."

Eustace actually for once looked ashamed, but Buffy was fairly certain that it was an act. However Lucy accepted it, "Okay."

Buffy looked at the painting in question and to her it looked quite good, almost realistic. It was of the sea off the coast of Cair Paravel and had a good-sized boat sailing across the waves. Looking closer she could see that Lucy had even painted in a tiny crew – a good mixture of Telmarines and Narnians – and had also included Caspian, Trumpkin and Reepicheep.

It was at that moment that she thought she was hallucinating. She just about could have avowed that she saw the painting move; the waves go up and down, the crew hustle and bustle about the deck and an extra person walking into view – Susan… As this occurred the feeling returned, flushing over her.

"Peter… come over here," she called.

"What?" he asked coming up behind her.

"Look at the painting."

Peter looked and saw what she had seen, "What is that?"

Inquisitive, the other three moved over to them – for the time being forgetting their disagreement – and looked at Lucy's painting. Magic filled the air and Peter looked stricken, realising that Lucy and Edmund were being returned to Narnia in front of him.

Buffy grabbed his hand just as the pinching started, trying to offer consolation to him and to herself. Then they both felt the pinching, just as they both had two years previous on the Underground platform. She saw a massive smile break out on Peter's face as the five of them were sucked into the painting.

The water was sub-zero – a great deal like the Finchley nights, only colder – sucking the air from her lungs and warmth from her skin. Endeavouring to remain composed; she took in her surroundings and saw nothing but ocean and four limp figures a short distance away from her.

Forcing her arms and legs to move she swam slowly over to them and noticed that Peter had gathered them all in close, huddling to keep warm. A futile fight, but the only option the five of them had. So she added her own dwindling body heat to the group and prayed for a miracle to transpire.

Combating off the inclination to just close her eyes and sleep, she kept watch. Before long she swore she could hear voices, recognizable voices and felt something or someone heave her from the cold death grasp of the water. Looking up she saw Caspian and Trumpkin standing there, helping the others out of the ocean, but she passed out before she could find out what was going on.

End Part

**Lyrics**:

Vanessa Amorosi – Sun's Up


	21. Things That Should Not Be

** Chapter Twenty: Things That Should Not Be**

_ /And hours become days,  
days become years/_

It was a strenuous struggle for Buffy to bring herself back to consciousness. All she could see in her mind was an impenetrable murky cloud that did not want to let her pass and re-enter the world, but she fought past it – she had no alternative on that matter. Her first thought was that she was all of a sudden warm, dry and comfortable and not freezing to death in an ocean. Forcing herself to do so, she opened her fatigued eyes and looked around her surroundings.

She observed that she was in a sparsely furnished room – it only contained a bed, a chair and some sort of cabinet. Shaking the remnants of the cobwebs from her brain, she went to get up from where she lay on the double bed and realised she was only wearing her slip, that someone or something had removed her clothes.

Pulling the bed clothes back around her, she sat there and endeavoured to concentrate on what she could remember. Buffy could picture the five of them in Lucy's and her room, the painting, the feeling of magic and then sub-zero water. There was something else there nevertheless, teasing the boundaries of her mind and senses.

The door to the room out of the blue flew wide open and there stood Peter looking more delighted and untroubled than she'd seen him since their last rendezvous. As she looked at him the last few seconds of her memory came flooding back, like a tidal wave and she could remember seeing Caspian and Trumpkin. That could mean one thing and one thing only, they were back. Although she did not see how that was possible, Aslan had told Peter and Susan that they could not return and she had taken Susan's place… It was extremely confusing.

"Is it true? Are we really back?" she asked him.

"We're back," he told her, exhilaration radiating from him like a small child at Christmas.

"And everyone…"

Peter sat down on the bed next to her, "Is alive and well. From what I have seen anyway…"

"I can sort of remember seeing Caspian and Trumpkin…"

"And Reepicheep," Peter informed her. "They are the ones I have seen and spoken too. Su is aboard, but was resting, but Caspian has assured me that we will see her at dinner tonight."

Buffy smiled at him, a little sorrowfully. It was lovely that they had been allowed back, but the reason for this eluded her and was slowly driving her insane as each second flew by. Shoving it back she asked, "Where are Ed, Lu and Eustace?"

"Ed and Luc were with Caspian… last time I checked," he answered. "I was sort of preoccupied with staring out at the ocean and then I realised you weren't there and came to get you…"

Buffy kissed him quickly, "I get it. But you never mentioned where Eustace was…"

Peter huffed, "I don't know, or care… He is somewhere on board." At Buffy's glare he sighed, "All right… I'll find him."

"Let me get dressed and I'll help."

He looked her up and down and offered ever-so ingenuously, "Do you need some help?"

She left the bed and picked up the dress that that someone had so agreeably laid out for her to wear, "Why do I think you would be more hindrance than help?"

"Because you know me so well," he replied coming up behind her, pushing her long hair aside and kissing her neck.

For a moment she gave in and leaned back against him, until her good sense prevailed. "Peter, we can't… We don't even know whose room this is…"

He turned her around to face him, "It's mine… Well – uh – ours, in fact."

"Ours?"

"I sort of told Caspian we were married," Peter acknowledged.

Buffy just stared at him, "And Lu and Ed just let you say this?"

"There could possibly have been some bribery involved."

"Pete…"

He put his arms around her and looked at her with roguish blue eyes, "Buffy… If I didn't say that they would separate us and then I'd spend the next however long we are here, trying to sneak into your room. Admit it; you know that is what would happen? This is why this is so much simpler. Besides it will help us to acclimate to married life…"

"In that case," she told him. "I hope you plan to do nothing but sleep."

"Why?"

She smirked at him, "Isn't that what married couples do?"

* * *

Eventually she and Peter emerged from their cabin, to find Edmund waiting for them on the deck. From his smirk, Buffy could just tell what her impish soon-to-be brother-in-law was thinking. "Took you both long enough," Edmund said. "I suppose you were involved in doing **married** things…"

"He wishes," Buffy told Edmund. "So do you know where Eustace is, because Peter seems to have lost him?"

"I did not loose him. I simply didn't care enough to find out if he was with us here or not," Peter answered. "And why do you care, anyway?"

"He's our responsibility. We are supposed to be looking after him," Buffy reminded him.

Edmund laughed, "Don't agonize, Buffy. Eustace the nuisance is in the cabin I regrettably have to share with him. He's in good health; even though he is convinced he is dying from some mystifying disease and has taken to his bed to slip silently into the gentle night."

"Like Eustace ever does anything quietly," Peter muttered mulishly.

Ignoring her fiancé/fake husband Buffy asked Edmund, "Where's Lu?"

"She and Caspian headed off to the mess hall for dinner. We are supposed to be joining them there…"

"Lead on, Ed," Buffy told him as she grabbed hold of Peter's arm.

The three of them walked along the deck until they came to a generously proportioned room, filled with conversation and boisterous laughter. It was quite a sight for them to take in, Telmarines and Narnians in reality enjoying each other's companionship. They were called over to a outsized table at the back of the room where their friends and – missing – sister were seated.

The two male Pevensies rushed at the vanguard towards their sister, but Buffy held back. She allowed them their moment of greeting, of reuniting with the misplaced piece of their family, before she joined them. As Susan stood up to welcome her brothers, Buffy's eyes more or less popped out of her head in astonishment, the once slender girl was now enormous with child.

Buffy was somewhat entertained by the paleness of and shock written across Peter's face when he caught sight of his sister and took in the prospect that he was scheduled to become an uncle. She guessed it was one thing for him to know that Susan had stayed behind to be with Caspian and another to see that they had been rather… occupied.

After the reunion, they sat at the table to catch up on what had happened while they had been departed. Buffy was very nearly impressed by Peter's self-discipline and the detail that he had not tried to kill Caspian as of yet, but she also knew that the peace would not last with those two. The assemblage sat there and listened to the narrative, beginning with Susan and Caspian's wedding and ending in Caspian's guarantee to Aslan to seek out the seven missing Lords of Narnia.

"If this is your mission," Peter questioned Caspian. "Why did you bring Su along in her condition?"

Caspian looked more than a little uncomfortable at his brother-in-law's enquiry. "We did not recognize that Susan was with child. If I had known, we would not have set out. The promise to Aslan could have waited until later."

Edmund interrupted before the two obstinate monarchs could begin to fight again. "How long has it been?"

Susan answered, "Three years."

"Two for us…" Buffy replied, she would have continued but noticed that Susan was looking at her. "What?"

"That ring…" Susan said, a smile breaking out. "Peter, do you have something to tell us?"

"Don't get him started," Edmund joked. "I beg of you…"

Lucy joined in, "It's not a pretty sight."

"Hey!" Buffy objected good naturedly.

"Sorry, Buffy," Edmund told her. "But Pete has corrupted you."

"Very funny Ed," Peter mumbled.

Caspian patted his wife's hand, "Peter informed me of this earlier. He and Buffy are wed."

"My Queen," Reepicheep said to her.

Buffy smiled half-heartedly at them all, and then tuned out as Reepicheep began to talk of the 'utter east' and Aslan's country. All she could think about was that when they were through there, she was going to exterminate Peter. She was not going to be compassionate and have it over quickly; instead deliberate and torturous was his providence… for putting her in this uncomfortable position.

End Part

* * *

** Lyrics:**

Faith Hill – Stealing Kisses

** Notes:**

Sorry for the long gap, I just needed a little break from the fic. I'm not exactly happy with the chapter but it is the best I can make out of it. Things should improve next chapter and from then on.

Thanks to all those who are baring with me.


	22. Caspian's Brilliant Idea

**Part 21 - Caspian's Brilliant Idea**

_//I'm so much more than a pretty face//_

Time aboard the _'Dawn Treader'_ had stretched from days into weeks for all those travelling on the fine Narnian ship. Nothing of real consequence had in fact occurred except with the transitory exception of a fruitless skirmish with a Terebithian pirate vessel. It had been nothing but sunshine, blue skies and even bluer Ocean. Not that everyone had sat around doing nothing, all the Pevensie children (including Buffy) had been helping out with the on-board chores - gender and station allowing. On top of that Buffy had personally spent numerous hours attempting to sweet-talk Eustace out of his supposed death bed and out into the sunshine.

At dinner one evening, later in the week, Caspian announced that they were approaching the Lone Islands and he wondered if the Kings and Queens - his cherished family - were interested in visiting them with him. Buffy was more than a little taken aback at the hastiness that Lucy, Peter and Edmund agreed to the spur-of-the-moment proposition. Before she could even make a comment or ask a question, a misfortune occurred.

Eustace had evidently decided that he was after all not going to pass away and had removed himself from his death bed and the cabin he was sharing with an ill-fated Edmund, only to be the cause of instantaneous pandemonium. It seemed that the young boy had spotted Reepicheep on deck and decided to have some fun with the mouse - hanging the diminutive ferocious warrior over the side of the ship by his tail.

And now Reepicheep was demanding - not without motivation - retribution in the form of a duel. As Eustace had gone pale at the very proposition, Caspian was called upon to appease the maltreated mouse's honour. It was an arduous task but in due course they came to terms - if Eustace apologised and swore to never do such a thing again, then there would be no duel. Reluctantly and at Buffy's urging the boy acquiesced, if only to save himself.

After that excitement everyone who was able, retired to their respective cabins to sleep. Buffy and Susan were charged with putting Lucy to bed as she was still exceedingly energized by a combination of Caspian's earlier suggestion and Eustace's almost duel. It took the two young women quite a while, but eventually they managed to bring to an end to their task and after spending a few minutes in each other's company they parted ways, each heading off to their own cabins and partners.

As Buffy entered her room she saw that Peter was all ready asleep - and hogging the bed and covers - not that she could in reality blame him. Since his ***little*** deception that was about all that she would let him do in there. It was a form of punishment for his so-called transgression, only it was backfiring and taking its toll on her too - it was simply torture to lie next to him and not be able to touch.

Sighing she - with difficulty - removed her own dress and slid on the slip that she had been wearing when they had been brought back from Finchley, then climbed in next to him. For the first time in what seemed like an eternity she gave into temptation and cuddled up next to him, pillowing her head on his chest. She was on the cusp of sleep when she felt his arms close around her and his lips softly press a kiss to her temple.

Unable to withstand it any longer, she shifted her body against his and pressed a kiss of her own to his bare chest over where his heart laid beating. Glancing up at his face and saw that not only was he awake, but that his translucent blue eyes were clouded over with unsuppressed yearning.

"Buffy," he murmured as his lips sought hers after such a long absence.

Locking her green eyes with his blue she smiled as a brainwave came to her. She made her way down his body and once she arrived at her chosen objective, she lowered her lips to his straining erection and blew lovingly across its gleaming head. Hearing a sharp intake of breath emanate from Peter, she smiled as she guided it lightly into her mouth, something that she had never before attempted.

Buffy continued to lick and suck as she bobbed her head up and down to an instinctual rhythm, going with the flow. As she felt him hold back from her more and more - evidently apprehensive about the delicate situation - he pulled her away from his aching body, answering her cry of protest with his tender words.

Suddenly she found herself pulled along the length of his body with her moist core rubbing against the part of him she had a moment ago been worshipping. She felt one hand to clasp lightly onto her sensitive breast, as he used the other to guide himself inside her. She moaned in rapture at the feeling of his hard length entering her and he thrust into her for the first time. Each and every movement filled her so entirely that she began to feel almost dizzy as the breath was pushed from her body.

Digging her long graceful fingers into his muscled shoulders and feeling his textured skin against her fingertips almost sent her into sensory overload. Without much warning his hand slipped away from her abdomen and flicked softly across her clitoris sending her into a skyrocketing orgasm. As the overheated muscles within her clamped down tightly around his shaft, he pumped his very own orgasm into her waiting body.

She collapsed delicately against Peter and listened to the gentle beating of his heart. After a few minutes, Peter reached up and gave her a quick kiss before lifting her off of him and gathering her into his arms as they both fell into a restful slumber.

* * *

It was just about midday when they arrived at their destination of The Lone Islands. Buffy and Peter - who had awoken much later than their companions - joined the others on deck in time to hear Lucy prattle over how the islands looked much the same as they had thirteen hundred years earlier.

To Buffy the bits of land that she could see left her feeling uninterested - after all it was merely land surrounded by a bit of water. She just could not fathom why her family was so damn excited by the sight of them. Clasping Peter's hand she looked up to see her lover in deep conversation with Caspian, who was asking how Peter and the others had conquered the chain of islands originally.

"We didn't," he told his brother-in-law with honest candour. "They were a part of Narnia for long before our time came and went."

Edmund sighed as he stared at the sight before him, "How can they look the same? It should be impossible. I mean Falimath still has livestock - so I suppose that there are still people on Doorn and Avra..."

"The Telmarine's did not take control of them. The first Caspian saw no tactical advantage to them and assigned them no worth. The people here have been on their own for over a thousand years."

Buffy smirked at this information, anticipation glistening in her green eyes. "So... the inhabitants could be hostile?"

Peter squeezed he hand, "Calm down, Sweetheart. I doubt that you will need to slay anyone or anything."

"Spoil my fun why don't you..."

Lucy chose that moment to squeal, sending Caspian, Peter, Buffy and Edmund to go on alert. "What is it my little Queen?" Caspian asked his hand resting upon his sword ready to defend.

"I've just had the most wonderful idea," she gushed at her family, ignorant to the havoc she had caused.

Susan and Buffy exchanged an amused look as Edmund's sarcastic side reared its repulsive head. "And what would that be? Playing dress-up and skipping around on the deck on the way to a tea..."

"Don't be ridiculous Edmund," Lucy told him. "I think that we should show Buffy, Caspian and Eustace Falimath. Since it's mostly livestock, it should be safe to walk across. The crew could meet us on the other side."

"Count me out Lu," Susan told her youngest sibling, placing a hand over her protruding belly. "These days it takes all my energy to get out of bed, never mind walking across an island."

Eustace glared at his cousin, "I'm staying here. I only just got over my near death and going to some island will bring it back on."

"I'm in," Peter said as Caspian and Edmund nodded their agreement and ignoring Eustace.

Feeling uncomfortable Buffy replied, "I think I'll stay here with Su. Catch up and all that sort of stuff... You know girl talk."

"But Buffy, you have got to come," Lucy implored. "I want to share it with you."

"So do I," Peter whispered so that only she could hear.

Against her better judgement and sighing in resignation she agreed to go with them. Within moments of that agreement, the others had already planned their day - Peter, Caspian, Edmund, Lucy, Buffy and Reepicheep would be crossing the island and Susan, Eustace and the rest of the crew would meet them on the other side.

As the others chatted happily amongst themselves Buffy stared out over the land mass that was supposedly Falimath and a feeling of trepidation settled over her and lodged itself in the pit of her stomach. Finally she smiled as the thought occurred to her that maybe she would get to slay something after all.

* * *

The rag-tag group set off for their trip just after the midday meal and after Buffy had, had to curb Peter who had witnessed Susan and Caspian's goodbye. As they walked along Buffy - who was unsurprisingly hand-in-hand with Peter - could not help but admire the scenery which was lush, green and full of a wide variety of plants that were all unfamiliar to her.

The seven travellers were making good time on their side journey and had no inkling of trouble, at least until they entered the valley ion the middle of the island. That was where they encountered a group of six or seven men - armed - sitting beneath a large tree basking in its shade.

Buffy tensed as the feeling of dread returned full-force; looking over at Caspian and Peter she saw that they were both also tensed and ready for a fight.

When they were finally noticed by the men - evident in stopped conversation and evil expressions upon their faces - Caspian made a kingly decision. He informed them all not to say who they were, after such a long silence from Narnia they would have no idea whether they were dealing with friend or foe. It was not safe for anyone to know that he was the current ruler of Narnia or that the others were the Kings and Queens of old (with a few exceptions).

Reepicheep the valiant little mouse warrior wanted to bear arms and take on the strangers - as did a certain green eyed blonde - and was rather upset when Caspian ordered him - and with the same quelling look Buffy - not to do so.

In the end they followed their original course which led them directly in line with the men and they halted a few feet away. It took only a moment for the men to approach and surround the group weapons drawn.

"Well, well, well… What do we have here then?" one of the men said.

"Looks like some easy crescents to me, Captain," another replied smirking evilly at them, his toothless mouth like something from a nightmare.

"Crescents?" Lucy questioned softly to her brothers.

Peter sighed in frustration, but held it back from Lucy. "They mean money, Lu."

"Are they going to sell us?" she asked out of nowhere.

The one in charge – the man who had been identified as the captain – turned his stare on Lucy. "Aye, lass. At least most of you…" He then leered at Buffy, "For some though… I am certain we could find other – uh – uses."

Caspian and Edmund were forced to hold Peter back, as he was straining to pounce on the man for insulting his family and his woman in front of him. It did nothing but entertain the so-called captain with the antics of someone he perceived to be no more than a boy.

"What do you think you are doing, boy? She's too much for a kid like you… She needs a real man."

"I'll kill you," Peter swore through gritted teeth. "I swear it. You will die by my sword."

The captain laughed again, "Who do you think you are dealing with? I am Pog; no one in these islands has ever bested me. It would be you who would end up dying. Is she worth it?"

Clasping one of his hands over his brother-in-law's big mouth and he spoke himself. "You are nothing more than a kidnapper and a slaver. A coward who picks on those weaker than he to make his fortune! If no one has bested you then you have done nothing more than prove my point, for a real swordsman would have left you with more than your hideous face as a reminder of your meeting."

"Is that so?" Pog replied a smile curling at his lip. "If I were you kid, I would remember that you – and you friends – are now dependent on ***my*** hospitality. Insulting me is not going to help your situation… or theirs."

A small and indignant cry rang out and without much of a warning Reepicheep charged at Pog, only to be caught and picked up by his beloved tail. "How dare you? Let us go you, monster."

"Now, this makes me more hospitable. This ***thing*** is worth something. I can imagine the crescents I can get for a talking mouse…" Turning to the remainder of his men, he ordered, "Over to Narrowhaven. We have some valuable goods for the market tomorrow."

It took all of Buffy's remaining self control not to react as she and the others were bound with rope and Reepicheep caged to prevent escape and preserve his value, but a quick meeting of her eyes with Caspian's reminded her to do as he had asked. So she – and her family –marched across the remainder of the minuscule island to the coast where there was a tiny settlement (an inn and a few homes) and a docked slavers ship.

At the shoreline, just before they were bordered onto the ship, a finely dressed man came out of one of the small cottages and approached them. He greeted Pog by name and then took a good long look at the motley group, his eyes settling on Caspian – his expression suddenly unreadable.

"How much do you want for him?" the man asked pointing his finger at Caspian. "My houseboy has run off and I find myself in need of a new one."

Pog's eyes glistened with greediness, "His Lordship has an eye for quality. One of the best he is. However if you are in need of company you should consider one of the ladies. The younger one could be without difficulty – uh – trained to suit any taste and the elder… well I am certain that she would be able to complete any task given to her… in many varied ways."

Buffy's eyes glowed with antagonism and she struggled valiantly to control her temper and follow Caspian's instructions. Looking to distract herself she glanced over at Peter and saw that he too was struggling with his temper.

"I am not interested in girls. I wish to purchase the boy."

Pog stared at the man in revulsion, "To each his own. My best price for such a strapping young lad is three hundred crescents."

The man shook his head, "One hundred and fifty and not any more."

"Well…"

"Pog, you know that he will not fetch even that at the market."

"Fine – agreement reached. Know this; it is only because it is for you."

Caspian was released from the others but not his bonds and handed to the man, causing Lucy to cry out in protest. Edmund tried his best to reassure Lucy, but the younger girl continued to bawl as they were forced aboard the slavers vessel.

Reepicheep was hung on deck as the remainder were forced down into the ship's hold where their captors had numerous other victims stored. Lucy was still sobbing and as she was pushed down the rickety stairs, one of the crew grabbed her by the hair and threatened to use her as entertainment – give her something to really cry about.

Buffy's suppressed fury grew and she swore to herself that before this was over she was going to unleash her slayer side on the captain and his repellent crew. No one threatened her or what was hers and got away with it unscathed.

As soon as the door was closed some of the other captives released their bonds and after a quick thankyou the group huddled together and sat down on some straw to take stock of the situation. Peter kept guard, while Buffy and Edmund comforted Lucy as best they were able under the circumstances.

After Lucy had cried herself to sleep, Buffy left her with Edmund and joined Peter. He automatically pulled her into an embrace, "Are you all right? I wanted to kill him for…"

"I'm fine and so is Lucy. She's just shaken and who wouldn't be at her age?" Buffy told him snuggling further into his arms. "Besides if anyone is going to slaughter that slime ball, it is going to be me."

He pressed a kiss to the top of her blonde head, "We could always do it together…"

"A couple's activity?"

"Exactly!"

"So… Is there a plan, or…"

"A few ideas, built no plan. How about you?"

"I have nothing," she answered honestly. "Do you think it's in bad taste to pray for Su and Eustace to come rescue us?"

Before Peter could respond, a voice from the dark surrounds whispered, "Buffy?"

* * *

End Part

* * *

**Lyrics:**

Katie Arminger – Trail Of Lies

**Notes:**

Sorry about the huge gap. I bought a Lab and have had not one minute to myself in months. I spent weeks typing this in little snatches. Hopefully I can update again soon.

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read this fic.

Love you guys!

**PS:**

I know I'm evil, but you guys secretly love cliffies. I know it…


End file.
